Frozen Memories: The Rose Duelists
by GrisailleDreams
Summary: Pegasus has introduced a new version of Duel Monsters called the Rose Duel. Since its rapid rise in popularity, he's decided to celebrate with a tournament. Yugi and his friends have been invited, along with a mysterious new member of their group. Who will win, and what secrets will be uncovered? Atem x OC, rated T for language, dueling based on the Duelist of the Roses video game
1. At the Black Clown

Yugi opened up the door to the Black Clown game shop and walked in as the bell dinged his arrival. The store was less busy than it normally was, but it was also early in the morning on a Saturday. The normal customers were probably still asleep at home. Yugi actually stifled a yawn, himself. Looking around, he didn't see Duke anywhere, but he heard a female voice promptly greet, "Welcome to Black Clown, can I help you find anything?"

He turned and smiled at a short woman who was around his age, sporting a very long, auburn braid pinned up in a bun, and large, green eyes. It amused him that she'd finally convinced Duke to let his female employees wear something other than mini-dresses, yet she still chose to wear one on occasion. As for today, she was in her steely-blue work slacks, a white blouse, and a black apron with the store's logo on the breast. She looked up from whatever it had been she was doing, and she returned the smile.

"Oh, Yugi, hey." She straightened up and leaned against a display shelf, blowing and popping a bubble with her chewing gum. "What's up?"

"Nothing much." He scratched the back of his head and peered around. "Oh, you've got new cards in for Rose Dueling. Did you set any aside for yourself, Inari?"

"Yep." She picked one up that was still nestled in a plastic case and flashed it to him with a wink. "I just bought one of these today. Cost me an arm and a leg. Thank God for employee discounts."

He took it from her hand, looking it over. "Mirror Wall… wow, they made it a permanent trap! That's going to be a tough one to beat."

She laughed. "Figured it would give me an edge for the next time I fight Atem." Raising an eyebrow, she looked down at the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. "He asked you to come check up on me, again, didn't he?"

"Hey!" Yugi protested nervously, slapping the card back down on its display, "Maybe I just wanted to see if Duke had any cards my grandpa isn't carrying!"

"Mmhm…" Inari slipped a clipboard under her arm and shoved her pen behind her ear before walking up to the front desk, where Duke was doing something on a computer. "Tell him you're going to start charging ten bucks an hour for being used as a babysitter."

"I'll keep that in mind…"

"Oh, Yugi!" Duke had just noticed him and set down the phone he'd picked up. "I was just about to call you."

"Oh? Why, going on?"

Duke took out his cell phone and started texting away like a mad person. "You'll never guess what Pegasus had sent out to the shop! It's so cool."

Inari broke in fiercely, "Hey, I called dibs on the first round!"

Her boss waved her off with a playful eyeroll, and he continued, "It's the new stadium for the Rose Dueling game! He asked ages ago if he could use my Dungeon Dice Monsters tech to build off of it, and I gave him the go-ahead."

"Wow, how cool!" Yugi beamed. "So it's ready to use?"

"Well," Inari added, going over her clipboard absently. "It turns on, anyway. We haven't actually tested it out, but Mr. Pegasus _said_ it works."

Duke's phone started buzzing, and he grinned. "I invited the others over for our first test duel, so they should be here in a little while."

"Pleeeeeaaaaase can I play the first duel?" Inari batted her eyelashes at Duke, giving him a sweet smile. "I'll pick up any extra shift you want, I swear."

Duke sighed irritably, running his fingers through his bangs. "If it'll get you off my back-"

"Yay!" Inari bounced up happily, pulling a deck of cards from her belt. "Good thing I'm always prepared~"

Yugi laughed and teased Duke, "Do you ever wish you wouldn't have hired her?"

"Only twice a day."

It didn't take long for the rest of their friends to show up: Joey, with Serenity in tow, Tristan, and Téa. The girls hugged Inari and dove into a conversation about her new apartment and a great place to find some cheap furniture that Serenity just _knew_ she would love. Duke, after getting another employee to cover the store for him, led them all into the back dueling arena, where he'd once fought Joey and Yugi with his Dungeon Dice Monsters game. Except, instead of that particular stadium, a new one stood impressively in its place.

"Alright," Inari chirped excitedly, eyes bright as she stared at the massive contraption, "Who wants to fight me?"

"Ah, no thanks," Joey balked, "I'm still smartin' from the last time you kicked my ass."

"I'll do it!" Tristan offered, raising his hand. "I haven't played a game in a while." Since the Battle City tournament and their adventures in Noah Kaiba's virtual world, Tristan swore he'd try to get better at dueling, which he had. After hearing the stories, Inari figured he just didn't want to chance being turned into a robot monkey, again.

The two stepped up and into the stadium. In front of each player was a large screen that mimicked the playing field. Turned off, it was merely a mess of grey squares, each big enough to hold one card. But once Duke flipped the switch, each tile started randomly shifting through various terrain pieces. Inari started going through her deck, looking for something.

"Hope you don't think I'm going to go easy on you," she called out to Tristan, who smirked.

"Wouldn't want you to."

" _Yugi, mind if I watch?"_

He blinked, then remembered the voice was coming from within him—Atem. He smiled a little with a nod, and let the spirit take over his body. Atem's eyes immediately went to Inari as he and the rest of the group took seats in the empty arena.

" _You need to stop fussing over her,_ " Yugi admonished within their mind. " _She's going to kill you_."

In fact, Inari glanced over and did a double-take, then scowled when she saw it was Atem watching instead of Yugi. Her cheeks went red, and she turned away to focus on the game at hand. She'd yell at him later. Atem had been the first person she'd met that she could remember, and ever since, he was always making Yugi tail her, making sure that she was doing alright. It was obnoxious. She knew he was happy for her for finding her new apartment, but, now that she wasn't crashing on Yugi's couch every night, it seemed to have fueled Atem's protective nature even more.

"Alright, everyone," Duke yelled, making himself the game's MC, "Let's get started!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, everyone! Thanks for reading the first part of my latest fic, Frozen Memories. This one's going to be a bear of a story, being set in two different worlds, so I'm splitting it up into two parts. The first, "The Rose Duelists," is going to focus on the Yugioh world, and the sequel will move on from there. The Rose Duelist is going to be very dueling-heavy, which is something I've never written before. I'm using a gaming program to help me out with it, though, so hopefully it'll go okay. As always, I'll strive to make it better every time!

Thank you again! Love, WolfMoonSinger


	2. Testing, Testing, One-Two-Three

"Okay, Duelists!" Duke yelled happily, "Choose your deck leader!"

On one end of the stadium, Inari smiled. "The Illusory Gentleman," she called out, placing a card from the top of her deck down onto the allocated slot. In the last row of the grid, dead center, appeared a tall, stately masked figure dressed like a bronze-armored knight with a high-collared cape.

Her opponent, Tristan, slapped down Battle Steer as his deck leader. He was excited to see the terrain revealed to be mostly meadow, outlined in mountains.

"You've got nothing in that deck of yours that'll do well on meadow, Inari!" he taunted his friend playfully. She just smiled.

"Yeah, I'm not worried."

She felt something between pride and excitement at being able to test run the newest Rose Dueling tech, the spin-off game being a weird mix of chess and Pegasus's rules from Duelist Kingdom. Inari was decent at it, and liked it because it was frankly way less complex than the regular game. She blew her bangs out of her eyes, popped another gum bubble, and the game started.

Inari looked down at her hand. "Well, ladies first." Only allowed to play one card from her hand at a time, she placed a face-down in front of her deck leader. "Alright, I'm done."

Tristan shrugged and did similarly, but his face-down card was to his left. "Come on, princess, let's get going."

"Don't call me that." Raising an eyebrow, she said, "I play Red Medicine to boost my life points up by five hundred! I also move my face-down card forward one space."

In the stadium seats, Joey, Atem, Téa, and Serenity were watching their friends duel. Joey was leaning up against the rail, looking bored out of his mind. "I hate the opening moves in this game, the duelists don't do anything."

"Be patient, it'll get more exciting," Duke admonished.

Inari smiled again and pulled two cards from her hand—each duelist had to have five cards in their hand at the beginning of each turn, as long as they still had cards in their deck. "I'll use one card to power up another and play it face-down, then move it forward." It was right next to her first card.

"What, you too scared to come fight me?" Tristan asked. "Fine, I'll bring the fight to you! Go Empress Judge!" His card from earlier moved on top of Inari's revealing her monster Fiend Sword. She cursed under her breath as her card was destroyed, and her life points reduced.

"So much for my Red Medicine…" she muttered. Tristan mirrored her earlier move, powering up a monster, and let her go. She drew a card and sighed. "I'll play this and move it up." On the field, her card moved towards Tristan's new monster, begging for another fight. "Then I'll put the card next to you in Defense Mode, and move my deck leader over."

One of the rules she was both grateful and furious over in this game was that any card, be it trap, spell, or monster, could be played in Defense Mode. That way, her opponent couldn't tell what she had. Unfortunately, everyone already knew that this card was a monster. And now Tristan could tell that it was a weak one.

He powered up another card, then took out her Musician King.

"Is that seriously all you've got for me?" But then he moved his new monster to her other face-down card, which revealed the spell Cursebreaker.

She grinned. "My monsters aren't the biggest or baddest at the moment, but I can at least power you down enough to take you on. I play Fairy of the Fountain and attack your warrior!"

Unfortunately for her, the terrain bonus for Empress Judge also let her move within attacking range of her Fairy of the Fountain, and now she was down to 2800 life points. She played another monster in Defense Mode, which Tristan promptly destroyed, but it at least protected her deck leader.

"If she doesn't find a way to take out his Empress Judge," Serenity fretted softly, "Inari's done for."

"She has plenty of ways to turn the duel around," Atem said, his arms crossed over his chest. "Just watch."

It was like he was psychic, because the next card Inari drew, she gave a sigh of relief and managed to place it close to the center of the map. "I play the spell Yami!" A giant portion of the meadow turned into Dark terrain, which took Empress Judge's attack down. Tristan balked and put down more facedown cards, but it didn't save his Judge. Inari destroyed his card with a powered-up Neck Hunter, one of her fiend monsters that loved the darkness. She looked over at Atem, who gave her a confident smile.

"Good job," he told her. She nodded and moved her deck leader back to its original position.

Tristan yelled, "You can't get rid of me that easily!" The next few moves he spent chasing her deck leader with a face-down card. She moved Fiend Hunter forward towards his other cards, nervous that this one was a trap card and unwilling to sacrifice her heaviest-hitting fiend. Tristan backed her into a corner, but she laughed when she drew a new card and slapped it down immediately.

Joey got fired up, seeing her face. "Aw, man, it's gotta be _that_ thing."

"What thing…?" Téa asked uneasily.

Inari moved another card farther up the field, and let her Neck Hunter take out a defensive Battle Ox.

"I'm calling your bluff!" Tristan told her. "Rude Kaiser! Attack that face-down card!"

"Say hello to my Aqua Dragon!" Inari crowed happily. A massive, blue dragon with large talons and teeth the size of steak knives appeared on the field, roaring down at Tristan. "Your attack also activated his special ability, giving him a power boost!" For the meadow space below the dragon turned into a space of sea terrain. "Your monster is destroyed." She moved the dragon several spaces up so that it was close to the Neck Hunter, in the dark terrain.

"But shouldn't she keep it in that ocean space?" Serenity asked.

"That's one of her trump cards," Atem said quietly. "The terrain beneath it turns into the sea whenever it engages in battle. So, that way, it always gets a power boost. And you'd be surprised how many monsters get a penalty in the sea."

Inari put another monster down and slid it into the mountains. "Your move, Tristan."

"Crap…" Tristan was getting frustrated. "Empress Judge, attack that face-down card!"

"You've just activated my trap card." Inari watched it flip over and destroy his monster, satisfied. "Invisible Wire. It destroys most monsters that come near it. My turn." She placed a card down, and started moving her Neck Hunter towards it, making sure that her other cards continued their advance towards Tristan. Her next turn, it turned out to be another power-up, bringing up her Neck Hunter's attack points to 3050. "I also play this spell card- Final Flame!" It took out only 200 life points, but that was enough to take him down to 2100. Shrugging, she joked, "You'd think a card called 'Final Flame' would do more than that, but who am I to complain?"

"She has a lot of magic cards," Joey remarked.

Atem grunted. "That's usually how she wins."

"Not for me. Whenever she gets me, it's with those water monsters."

Inari shrugged and discarded something from her hand, laying down a card and putting it in defense mode in the single sea space. "It's your move, Tristan. Go ahead and make my day."

"No way," he said with a sure smile, "If you want to get into it, you've gotta stop hiding in the dark!" He had been building a solid defense around his deck leader and not making any moves towards her. She shifted the card in the mountains along its path.

"Novel idea," she agreed, "But first, I think I'll play this. Monster Eye!"

A pack of floating eyeballs popped up, and Téa said flatly, " _That's_ gross."

"Why does she even have that card in her deck?" Joey asked Atem. "Even with a terrain boost, it's the weakest on the field."

"Because of its special ability," Inari answered, her eyes on Tristan. "Monster Eye shows everyone the last card you put down on the field when I flip it face-up."

On command, one of Tristan's monsters appeared: Judge Man. Inari grimaced, but looked resolved. It was even stronger than Neck Hunter with a terrain boost, and she didn't want to move her fiend from the dark terrain. Instead, she took out a monster in defense mode in front of Judge Man with her Aqua Dragon.

"Ha, I ain't fallin' for that trick," Tristan said, placing Judge Man in defense mode. "No way you're going to get me to fight you on sea terrain again."

"Okay." She didn't sound very concerned. "Well, I'll take Monster Eye off the field now that its job is done, and put this number down." Another face-down, of course.

"There's not a lot of revelation in this game, is there?" Atem mused quietly. There were eleven cards on the field, and only three of them were up.

"I'm going to go ahead and take out your Judge Man," she said. "The point difference isn't huge, but it's enough to get rid of your monster!" The dragon blasted it off the field, and she was silently happy that none of the surrounding cards were traps.

Tristan looked at his hand and decided he didn't have anything good enough, yet, so he passed.

"Fine," Inari growled, "If you don't want to bring it, I will." She set her dragon on the card in defense mode in front of her Neck Hunter.

That's when Tristan smirked. "Perfect. Reveal trap card!"

Inari was horrified as he played Acid Trap Hole, and dissolved her precious dragon. She threw her hands up to her mouth, and whispered, "... my child…" It made everyone laugh a little.

Tristan put down another card in defense mode, this time in the blank space where her Aqua Dragon had been.

"You're going to regret that," she growled. Inari slipped her mountain-bound card even closer to Tristan's deck leader, but the man rolled his eyes.

"Trap card," he sang, and another Acid Trap Hole destroyed her monster.

"Seriously?!" she shouted, "How many of those do you have?!" She put down another card, moved a different one towards the water, and ended her turn.

He put down another defense mode card, which sent her into a fury. "Okay, I'm done putting up with this. Neck Hunter, attack!"

Even though her fiend's attack lowered, now that it was moving back to the meadow, it still took out Tristan's warrior monster and settled directly in front of his deck leader.

"You know what happens next, right?" she asked.

"Inari, don't get distracted," Atem called, "You always lose your head when you get angry."

She ignored him, then laughed triumphantly when Tristan attacked her face-down Water Magician with a much weaker monster that was immediately destroyed, bringing his life points down to five hundred. But then he retaliated with a second attack, using a Panther Warrior that destroyed her magician. Then he moved his deck leader back, out of her reach.

"Just try running," she said with a scowl, "But I'll catch you eventually." Her Neck Hunter gave chase, and she set down more cards to move in on Tristan's defenses.

"You think so?" Tristan shifted again, then attacked a face-down monster with Panther Warrior. Unfortunately, Inari's Spirit of the Winds was too tough and won the fight.

"Ha, I gotcha again," Inari chuckled softly.

Tristan smirked and pointed out, "Too bad your spirit is spellbound."

"A minor setback." She scanned her hand. "I combine these two monsters and keep the result face-down." In this version of the game, almost any monster could combine with others, and you didn't have to have to fusion monster in your deck to do it. The computer system did that for you.

He kept retreating and placing cards down between his deck leader and the Neck Hunter, while Inari tried to round him up in a pincer strategy, a monster on either side. "I put down another monster."

"You already have too many on the field. It'll be destroyed," Duke reminded her.

"Yeah, I know. Neck Hunter, attack the defense-mode monster!"

Tristan flipped over another monster. "Attack her face-down card!"

With a smirk, Inari said, "You just lost the duel."

Tristan's Armed Ninja revealed a large Zombie Dragon, and the ninja lost most of its attack strength on her Dark terrain. It was destroyed, and Tristan's life points went down to nothing.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, there, everyone! Thank you for reading. This was my very first time trying to write out a duel. Please let me know how I did and where I could improve! There will be more dueling later in this story, so I would really appreciate the help!

Next chapter will be plot-oriented rather than dueling.

Lots of love, WolfMoonSinger


	3. Three Invitations and a Rose

**Author's Note:** I know I said I'd only post one chapter per week, but it really bothered me to leave off on a duel chapter? So here's the next one, all story.

* * *

Inari descended from the stadium, her deck tucked safely into her belt, and shook Tristan's hand. "Good game," Tristan said, "If only I'd known about that Zombie Dragon."

"Hey," she relented, giving him a quick hug, "You had me worried there with your Empress Judge. If I hadn't drawn Aqua Dragon, you'd have really gotten me."

"Didn't stop me from crushing it-"

The comment incensed her and got her pouting again. "Jerk."

"You both did very well." Atem and the others had come to meet them, and he was smiling. Inari begrudged him a smile, folding her arms and looking at him with all the sass she could muster.

"Yeah, well… I guess I _did_ learn from the best."

He pulled her aside while a fired-up Joey demanded that Duke let him fight next, against Tristan again. Voice lowered, Atem asked, "Would you… maybe want to get dinner with me after the store closes?"

She raised her eyebrows. "You mean like a date?" As he turned pink, she laughed. "Today is my half day. How about lunch?"

Duke had sent her back to work after that, and it wasn't until early in the afternoon that he, Joey, and Yugi (for Atem had let him take control again) had finished their turns dueling on the new system. Atem was tapping a mental foot, waiting for the clock to wind down and Inari to get off of it, until Yugi had to yell at him.

" _Do you ever relax, Pharaoh?"_ he snapped.

" _Forgive me, I'm just nervous."_

" _You two've gone out, like, three times already, and spend time together with the rest of our friends every other day."_

Instead of responding, Atem forced his way back into control to wait outside the game shop. Leaning against the outside wall, he felt Yugi's phone vibrate. It was Inari.

 _Hey, I just clocked out. Be there in a minute._

A minute turned into five, then into ten, and she still hadn't emerged. He was ready to go inside to look for her, but the door finally opened, and she slipped out with a wave and a word of goodbye to Duke, flashing Atem a sweet smile when she saw him. She'd changed into a long, emerald-green layered dress with scalloped hems and brown sandals, her work clothes presumably tucked into the light pink messenger bag hanging from her shoulder. The braided bun had also been abandoned, her curly mane left in a loose ponytail that reached down to her knees.

He kissed her cheek. "You look lovely," he shyly stated, making her face light up.

"Thank you… where are we going?"

Atem and Inari went to her favorite café, just down the street from the shop. They sat down, and he watched as she nursed her coffee and nibbled delicately on a muffin while looking out the window. A pair of girls wearing some new street fashion, dark and layered with vintage clothes, and walking a thin, silky dog passed by the window, and she stared at them, sighing sadly. But then she caught Atem's eye and gave him a smile, setting down her food.

"Sorry," she sighed, "I didn't mean to… space out on you."

He reached out and touched her hand. "Are you sure you're doing alright? You know if you need anything at all, you have Yugi's number-"

"I'm not going to bother him every time I sneeze." She rolled her eyes and tapped her foot impatiently. "Speaking of bothering people, you really need to stop having Yugi following me around. Or at least have the decency to be a pest, yourself."

"I'm sorry." Atem actually looked it, too. He didn't know what else to say, so he changed the subject. "Have you remembered-"

"No," Inari cut in, looking away. "Nothing. Not even a last name…" At that moment, Atem squeezed her hand, and her heart skipped a beat, breath catching in her throat.

It came in the quickest flash. The floor was blue, everything was shiny and cold, and the hand around hers was larger, paler. She felt a ring on her finger, and heard a deep voice murmuring to her, " _Don't worry, princess…"_

" _I hate that_ ," she whispered to herself.

"Hate what?"

She snapped back out of the vision and found herself grasping Atem's hand tightly, staring at him with wide eyes and breathing hard. Shaking her head like a dog, she pulled away. "N… nothing… I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

Inari smiled at him, but he still looked worried. She was glad he didn't press that particular issue. "I know what it's like to not know who you are," he told her, grabbing his drink, hot tea, and looking down at it. "Better than any of our other friends. They've done everything they can to help me remember… I want to do the same for you."

"It's funny," she sighed, "But every time I try to think about something before I met you, I immediately start to panic. I recoil from my own mind… it's like I don't _want_ to remember, deep down. Hey…" She ducked her head to try to meet his eyes. "You've already done so much for me, Atem, and I can't even begin to repay you. Please stop worrying about it."

He shut his eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't think I ever will. But I'll… I'll try to let you things on your own, more."

"Took you long enough." She laughed. "So, do you want to catch a movie, or-?" Both of their phones started going off, and she looked up at him with a nervous chuckle. "Well, that's weird." She flicked the "answer" button, answering the call as Atem did. On the other end was a voice she didn't recognize, but Atem did.

" _Hello, Duelist!"_ said Pegasus, _"This is an official notice of invitation to my upcoming Tournament of the Roses! Expect a package in the mail within the next twenty-four hours with all the details. The fun begins on the sixteenth, so you'd better prepare quickly!"_

"The sixteenth… that's a week from now!" Inari exclaimed, rubbing her temple. "You'd think we'd get more notice than that…"

"Are you going?" Atem asked, slipping Yugi's phone back into his pocket.

She shrugged, "Duke likes Mr. Pegasus enough that he'll probably let me take the time off. Besides, if I've been invited, he probably has, too." She looked up and smiled, stowing her phone back in her purse. "What about you? _Please_ say you're going to compete. You'll definitely win."

He gave her a wry smile. She hadn't heard the story of Duelist Kingdom, yet. "Maybe. We'll see when the package arrives."

It already had by the time Atem walked her home a couple of hours later. Much to her disappointment, nothing had really happened during the movie except for getting popcorn caught in her bra and Atem accidentally stepping on her hair. She was glad to see the brown box in front of her door to distract from the lingering embarrassment. Picking it up, she glanced between both him and the box and asked, "So… want to open it with me?" He gave her an indulgent smile, so she grabbed his hand and dragged him into her apartment.

It was small, with a tiny kitchen and living room, and a bedroom. Inari had no idea why, but the selling point for her was the walk-in closet. With Serenity and Téa's help, she'd managed to find an old, Victorian-looking loveseat for almost nothing, placed around a simple coffee table that double as her dining table with a non-matching, squashy armchair. Inari and Atem sat together on the loveseat, knees touching, while Inari ripped the tape off the box.

"Ugh, what _is_ this thing, Fort Knox?"

"Here, let me help…"

The packaging was made of a deep burgundy velvet, and it was sprinkled with red and white rose petals. A pristine envelope with a red spot of sealing wax, pressed with the logo for Industrial Illusions over satin ribbon sat underneath a long-stemmed red rose with the thorns burned off. Next to it was a black case the size of an eyeshadow palette, engraved with a white rose insignia. Flipping it open, Inari found two gold coins with the same image, one red rose and one white, with four empty slots for more.

"Must be this tournament's bargaining chips," Atem remarked, plucking up the rose and idly twirling it between his fingers.

She glanced at him, envelope in hand. " _This_ one? Have you played in an Industrial Illusions tourney before?"

"Ah… it's a long story…"

Inari tossed the envelope onto the coffee table, sitting back with her arms crossed. "Is that why you don't want to go? Did you lose the last one or something?"

"No, I won." He pursed his lips, shifting uncomfortably. "Inari, I don't want to talk about it."

"Aw, not even to me?" She giggled, batting her eyelashes, but he looked away.

"I said ' _no_.'"

"…. Alright…" She tucked her legs in on the loveseat, curled underneath her while her arm leaned on the back and supported her head. Her eyes studied Atem's profile, the intense but weary eyes the color of garnets, the high cheek bones. There were so many questions she'd always wanted to ask him, but the time never seemed right. But, she realized, she could hardly blame him for being secretive. With a heavy sigh, Inari admitted, "Ice. Ice is all that comes to mind when I try to think about what… who I was before. A floor made of blue ice… sometimes, I hear voices, but nothing intelligible."

Yes, he was looking at her again. Fantastic. His eyes were wide. "Why didn't you tell anyone about this?"

"It's almost nothing to go on," she scoffed, cocking an eyebrow. "It's mostly just annoying. It would be nice if I had a face or… or a name to put with the voices. Instead, I get to listen to them whispering to me in my dreams."

He slipped an arm around her, toying with her long curls. "What do they say to you?" he asked softly. She rested her head against his shoulder, staring off into space.

"I don't know," she sighed heavily, her hand finding the one Atem didn't have occupied. "They're so quiet, and I always forget half of it when I wake up, anyway. I can't remember anything else, so why should I bother trying to remember this?"

Atem squeezed her hand, and it suddenly felt like he was squeezing her heart. She quickly moved away from him, hands clutching her bursting head, and she doubled-over, groaning. A note of panic had crept into Atem's voice as he crouched down on the floor in front of her.

"Inari? What is it, what's wrong?"

" _Stop it_ ," she whispered to herself. For her eyes had blurred and when she shut them, she saw a thin smile and felt the warmth of a kiss on her forehead, a hand on her face that she wanted to press closer, and watched blood spilled on icy stairs. But her fingers touched nothing but wet skin, and she opened her eyes again to Atem pulling her hand down and kissing her tears. Crying, she hugged him and let him murmur soothing words into her ear.

"What was it?" he asked when she finally calmed down.

"Blood…" Her voice was barely audible. "I think someone's dead. I don't know." She sniffed and straightened up, her hands still wrapped around him. "Will… will you stay with me tonight? I don't want to be alone if I have more nightmares." He nodded and kissed her.

"Of course."

Sometime in the night, Atem woke up to her rolling out of bed to quietly open up a small chest that she kept in her beaten-up wardrobe. Inari pulled something out of it, replaced the chest, then went out into her living room and didn't come back for the better part of an hour. He left her to it, falling back asleep before he could even think about saying something. He wouldn't remember the incident the next day, anyway.

Atem started walking Inari either to or from work after that night, until she finally came out of her subdued state and became aggravated with him again for treating her like a child. The new memories had stopped bothering her, and there had been nothing else trying to break out of her mind. At least it was easier to convince him to participate in the Tournament of the Roses. Besides, Joey and Duke had also been invited, and Yugi wanted to go, anyway. Atem had cracked under the collective pressure. The envelopes contained instructions for how to get to the tournament, and instead of a ship, they were taking a train. The group, Téa, Tristan, and Serenity included, went together to the station.

" _Ma Déesse_ ," Inari breathed, looking around at the massive crowd of people milling about the platform. "How many people did Mr. Pegasus invite?"

"Hope there's room for us on the train," Tristan said with a low whistle.

Téa snorted and sardonically put in, "We could always sneak into the cargo hold again." Inari turned around, eyes big and brow furrowed, and started to ask a question, but Téa laughed quickly and cut her off. "Duelist Kingdom. We weren't invited then, either."

"Uh-huh… You all _really_ need to tell me about that tournament some time."

Yugi was in control today and beaming at nothing in particular. He was just excited for the start of a new, non-deadly tournament that didn't have anything riding on him winning. He could just play a fun game with his best friends. He was the first to board the train, followed by the rest of them to the compartment they were all lucky enough to share. Granted, they were only built for four people, so it was a tight fit, but they managed.

"Joey, you're stepping on my foot!" Tristan barked, shoving him over until his face was pressed into the glass window.

"This is going to be a very long train ride," Serenity sighed.

"Joey? I _thought_ that's who I heard complaining in the hall."

The compartment door had opened and in its way stood a tall, very beautiful blonde woman with more confidence in one hand than Inari probably had in her entire body. When the huge, purple eyes landed on her, she blushed and looked away shyly.

"You're new. Joseph, where are you manners? Introduce us!"

Yugi grinned, and Joey suddenly sat up straighter, leaning over and squishing Tristan to grab the woman's hand. "Hey, there, Mai! I shoulda known you'd be invited here!"

"Well of course." Mai's voice was warm and smug, but her expression was soft when her gaze was on Joey. "Anyway." She turned to Inari, who stood up to shake the hand that had been offered to her. "My name's Mai Valentine. It's nice to meet you."

"Inari… Winters." She forced the lie—she could remember her first name well enough, but Yugi had ended up helping her come up with a fake surname back before she stared working for Duke. If Mai noticed the pause, she didn't say anything. Instead, she surveyed the compartment with a critical eye.

"Ladies, I've got a compartment all to myself," she announced, "Why don't you join me and leave the boys to their testosterone-fest?"

"Sounds fantastic," Téa agreed, snagging her bag from the overhead shelf. Serenity and Inari followed suit. "See you when the train stops, guys~"

Inari giggled, giving Yugi one last glance, and followed her new party. It felt much roomier with Mai, now that there were only four of them. She sat next to Serenity, and across from Mai, who kept asking her questions. Téa gave a nervous Inari a reassuring smile, nodding to her that Mai was alright. The train got moving, and shortly after it pulled out of the station, a man pushing a snack cart rolled past and sold the girls refreshments. Inari automatically chose a glass of wine along with her snacks, whipping out her ID and praying that the man didn't notice the few small details that gave it away as a fake. Not that she was underage, but she didn't need to police to get involved in her already murky, confusing life.

"I didn't know you drank alcohol," Téa commented, unconcerned.

Inari shrugged, staring at the glass sitting in her hand like she didn't remember getting it in the first place. Her heart was fluttering in her chest. "I don't… usually." Clearing her throat, she looked back up at Mai, hoping for a change of topic. She was relieved that Mai had not only ordered herself a glass, but bought the entire bottle for the group to share.

"Hey, every girl has the right to unwind in her own way," she said with a smile. Taking a sip of her drink, Mai asked, "So, Inari, how did you meet everyone?"

"It's a long story…"

"We've got the time, believe me."

Inari looked out the window as the train passed by a thick maple forest and closed her eyes, thinking back to that cold, fuzzy memory of the night she met Yugi and Atem.


	4. Amnesiac: The Origin Story?

Who knew an apartment could feel so empty? Yugi sighed and leaned against the couch, looking at the bare kitchen where his friends had just been a few hours ago. They had made moving into a new place more fun, and now he found himself missing the noise and laughter. He couldn't wait for Joey to move in, too, but that wouldn't be for another month. It was a three bedroom unit, and they were going to convert the extra one into a game room. So far, though, the only furniture was Yugi's relatively-finished room, the couch and a chair in the living room, a bookshelf, Joey's bed, and a small kitchen table with three chairs.

"It has a long way to go," Atem said, his spirit sitting on the arm of the sofa.

Yugi smiled. "It'll get there," he replied, "It just takes time."

"True."

The night was unseasonably cold, and Yugi shivered. It was the middle of May, and had no business being below thirty degrees. In fact, he frowned when he noticed that it was actually... snowing?

Atem's face snapped to the window. "Something doesn't feel right."

Yugi, shrugging off the bad feeling crawling up his spine, got up to shut the window, struggling to throw a flapping curtain out of the way while the wind bit his face, and leaned out to grab the handles of the outward-opening glass panes when he heard it: a woman screaming.

He threw on his old, dark grey vest and ran out the door, taking the two flights of stairs three steps at a time. The voice sounded close, but he worried that it would stop by the time he reached the owner. It was so strange, like it was part of the roaring wind, only vaguely distinguishable as human. Almost, it was easier to follow the storm into its heart. The wailing and the wind led him to a thick park across the street. The trees were brown with a pale green mist that was made up of the fresh, tiny leaf buds starting to grow on the branches, though the freak weather threatened to kill them with a late frost. They swayed dangerously in the wind, the larger ones groaning what sounded like a warning. The sharp, frozen tempest was whipping into a frenzy, tossing Yugi's hair in all directions.

"Over there."

Atem was pointing towards the center of the storm, now only several feet away, and Yugi ran. Before him, between the trees, was the screaming woman. She was of an age with Yugi and his friends, but that was where the similarities ended. Her hair was a wild mane that was being blown straight into the air by the storm, reaching up to an impossible length. Her face was distorted with anguish, tears streaming down her cheek, and her eyes glowed—literally, _glowed_ —with some sort of strange magic. She wore a foreign-looking dress made of white silk, torn in several places, stained with mud and thick patches of blood. A green, fur-trimmed cloak hung haphazardly from one shoulder, tossed around in the wind. Jewelry glimmered from several places on her body, including a spangled tiara nestled in her curls. She seemed to be the center of this winter vortex, and it all stopped when her eyes shut and her body went limp, collapsing to the ground.

Atem had taken over at this point, his arms thrown up against the wind, but he slowly, cautiously approached as soon as she was out cold. She whimpered, but didn't wake. He struggled, but managed to lift her in his arms, and he carried her back to Yugi's apartment.

The woman woke up the next morning, blinking weakly in the sunlight streaming through the window. Her hand reached up to touch her pounding head, and she winced when her fingers found a small cut. Mostly, it just felt bruised. She groaned, trying to sit up, and immediately feeling dizzy. Her throat felt unbelievably raw, constantly burning whenever she swallowed or even breathed, and her lips were cracked and scabbed over, as if she'd been gnawing on them for the last few days. A horrible, wrenching pain gripped her heart until she felt like she couldn't breathe. It was a nightmare.

Looking around, she narrowed her eyes. Everything was so strange. Her fingers grasped an overstuffed couch underneath her. She looked down at the blood on her dress and took a shaky breath, trying to remember how she got here while panic rose within her.

"Oh, good, you're awake."

She shrieked and jumped up, backing up into the wall as Yugi entered the living room, stretching and yawning. At first, he was smiling, but it faltered when he saw her expression, and he turned concerned. "Are you alright, miss?" he asked.

Her eyes went wild as she looked around for an escape route. It was so closed off, here, she felt like she was suffocating. Sensory overload and her general terror were too much, and made her fall to the ground, curled up in a ball and refusing to look at anything. It hit her how insane she must look. The thick, knee-length curls that were normally in some kind of order were tangled and dirty, her muscles were tight, and her hands kept clenching into fists while she hyperventilated. Yugi walked to her, crouching down so that he was closer to her level, and tentatively put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched and backed away from his touch.

"Hey." His tone made her look up, and he was very serious. "There's nothing to worry about. I'm going to try to do all I can to help you out. Okay?"

Cautiously, she eyed him, more dizzy than comforted, and took the hand that he offered to help her up. Her eyes fell on his Millennium Puzzle, and suddenly her grip turned into a vice as she blanched.

Startled, he asked, "What's wrong?"

But she shook her head, wrenching her hand away from him. She opened her mouth to speak, but winced and let out a small cry of pain while her hand flew to her throat. Just how badly had she damaged it?

Not one to be put off by a setback, even as he rubbed his throbbing wrist where she'd held it, Yugi flashed her a smile and said, "I'm not surprised. Don't worry, we'll figure out a way to fix you up." His grin touched a little something in her heart, and she returned it with a tiny smile of her own. She then furrowed her brow, confused, and pointed at the puzzle around his neck before grimacing at it a little. "Oh, the Millennium Puzzle?" He warmed up inside and started telling her the cliff notes version of how it came to be, and how he came to have it, all the while making her tea with honey to start soothing her injured throat. While he assured her that it, and the spirit inside, was perfectly safe, she still looked apprehensive. It was more surprising that she didn't seem shocked that such a thing existed.

"Well," Yugi continued as they sat down, "Atem's actually the one who brought you here. Do you… remember any of that?" She wildly shook her head. "You can meet him, if you want, maybe that'll jog your memory-!" But she shook her head fiercely. He shrugged. "Suit yourself." Flicking his gaze between her jewelry and her ruined clothes, he added, "One of my best friends is coming over in a little while to see you. I figured you wouldn't want to walk around in that forever." The girl looked down at her gown, then wrapped her arms tightly about herself. She started crying, again, and Yugi's heart went out to her.

Téa was over within the hour, carrying a small suitcase. By then, the mystery girl had bathed and untangled her mass of hair, plaiting it into a French braid and tying it off with a rubberband Yugi lent her. She was sitting on the couch, staring at a hand-made leather satchel that she'd been wearing under her dress. Her accessories were next to it along with her green, beaded shoes. The dress and cloak had vanished. Yugi had lent her a black t-shirt that didn't really fit, and the largest pants he could find to pull on for the time being. Téa entered with a smile, but her face fell and crashed into a mixture of horror and shock at the broken, mess of a human when their eyes met.

"Téa…" Yugi said slowly, breaking their staring contest. "This is… uh…" He looked over his shoulder. "What _is_ your name, anyway?"

"I—" She gasped hoarsely and her hand flew to her throat. It felt even worse, now that the injury had time to settle in. Her eyes looked up at Yugi desperately, apologetic. She mimed writing in the air.

Slapping a hand to his forehead, Yugi groaned, "Why didn't I think about that?" He grabbed a pen and notepad and set them down before her.

The woman picked up the pen gingerly, staring at it like it was an alien life form and touching the tip to her finger. She looked even more confused when a spot of ink showed up on her skin, but put it to the paper, anyway. Each letter felt like trying to drag a boulder up a hill, but she pushed through.

 _Inari_

"What a cute name," Téa said with a smile as she sat down next to her on the couch. "I'm Téa." Inari smiled, and Téa noticed with a stab of pity that her cheeks were hollow. "What've you got there?"

The two of them opened up the satchel together, dumping out more gold than either Yugi or Téa had seen in their entire lives. Necklaces, earrings, a crown or two, all jeweled, most of them sporting emeralds. One drawstring purse held coins that were at least two inches across. Inari just stared at the trove blankly, not sure what it meant or what to do with it. A tiny ring, a band made of rose gold that was forged to look like a leafy vine dotted with emeralds, caught her eye. She slipped it on and idly twisted it around her finger.

"… Well, we can definitely get you a new wardrobe," Téa commented, trying to make it a joke. It fell flat, and on deaf ears. "You probably weren't going to fit into my clothes, anyway, you'd be swimming in them." The now-useless suitcase sat against the wall.

Yugi set another steaming mug of tea down in front of Inari. "Enough of this, and you'll be speaking again in no time." She took it, blew the steam away, and started slowly sipping it, but it was like she was on autopilot.

Téa and Yugi talked in low voices to each other while she did so; it was easy since she was all but ignoring them. "The guys are coming over later to bring in another load of Joey's stuff," Yugi reminded her, "So I figured that'll give you and Inari time to get to know each other… and she won't have to deal with meeting the others all at once, either. She seems to get overwhelmed easily."

"Got it. Besides, I'm not sure she'll be able to stand wearing those man-pants for much longer," Téa teased, throwing him a wink. "Serenity said she's going to meet up with us. I think Inari will get along better with her, anyway." After Inari finished her drink, Téa grabbed her and whisked her off. Yugi sighed, scratching the back of his head while he stared at the closed front door.

" _Is there something wrong?"_ Atem asked, appearing in front of him.

Yugi gave him a looked that screamed " _Obviously._ " "What are we going to do with her?" he asked. "And what are the guys going to think? A girl staying in my place? Joey's definitely not going to let me hear the end of it."

" _Once they see the shape she's in, I'm sure they'll understand."_

"I don't even know that _I_ understand!" Yugi exclaimed. "We find a girl in the middle of the park who can make it snow, carrying enough gold to make another set of Millennium Items. And, speaking of, she's terrified of the Puzzle!"

" _She's scared_ ," Atem insisted. " _Give her time. The mind and body take time to heal."_

"For once, I wish you'd stop sounding like a condescending fortune cookie."

Even so, Atem was right. With time, Inari met their friends one by one, easing into being around people again slowly. The first time any of them had made her laugh, it was because Joey had made a horrible pun about something the day he moved in. Mostly, she enjoyed spending time with Serenity and Téa, who would sit with her poring over fashion magazines and chatting with each other. Inari never joined in, her voice still too damaged to speak, but she liked the company. Occasionally, they would ask her questions about herself, and sometimes she would answer. Favorite color? Green. How old are you? Twenty-one, the same age as Téa. Other times…

"Inari, do you remember where you're from?"

She looked panicked at Serenity's question, furrowing her brow as she wracked her brain for an answer. Sadly, she drew a great, big question mark and showed it to them with a helpless shrug. She kept the page, because it kept being the answer to half of the question they asked her.

Inari slept on Yugi's couch at night, several hours at a time for the first week. Yugi clocked her record at sixteen. But one night, she awoke after only a handful, still deathly exhausted. She thought that she'd been dreaming, but it was stubbornly slipping out of her memory faster than she could blink. Rubbing her temples, Inari sat back on the couch, staring out the window.

"Are you alright?"

She jumped with a squeal, and stood up to see Yugi standing in the short hallway that led to the bedrooms. But, she noticed as he moved into the light, it wasn't Yugi. It was someone else.

Atem moved cautiously, slowly so as not to startle her again. It felt like trying to get close to a wild rabbit. "Hello," he said softly, hoping he sounded kind, rather than condescending. Clearly she knew he wasn't Yugi. "I don't suppose you remember me."

Inari shook her head, bumping into the arm chair and falling into it. Atem moved to catch her, but stopped himself. She was fine. She frowned and pointed at the Millennium Puzzle, and he nodded, sitting in the other chair. "Yes, I'm Atem. The spirit that Yugi told you about."

Narrowing her eyes, she jutted her chin in the direction of Yugi's room. Go away.

"Listen, I'm not sure why you don't trust me—" He ignored the fact that she started glowering at the Puzzle once more. "But I wanted to introduce myself. Officially meet you, if you will." He held out a hand, searching her eyes to see… something.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and looked like she was struggling with something inside her mind. But when her gaze met his, something changed, and she softened. So did he. He couldn't believe that he'd never noticed the color of her eyes, before—green, as green as an emerald and just as brilliant. It took her a minute, then two, to finally take his hand, shaking like a leaf. They shook hands.

 _~On the Train~_

"… and there wasn't really much to it after that. Atem and Yugi taught me how to play Duel Monsters to bring me back out of whatever shell I was hiding in. Once my voice started coming back, we'd go between Yugi's grandpa's game shop and Black Clown to hang out with the others. Duke got me a job, and… yeah…"

"Well, that's one hell of a story," Mai commented, though her smile said that she'd heard better. "You really don't remember anything about yourself?"

Sadly, Inari shook her head. "I know bits and pieces, but nothing that I can use to really construct an identity."

"What about the police? Filing a missing person's report?"

Inari shook her head. "I don't know… Yugi once asked after he'd spent a day combing through ones that already existed, but I begged him not to make a new one. I don't want any attention drawn to me. My life is already complicated enough."

Mai raised an eyebrow. "That's too bad. The cops could probably figure it out easily." Seeing the unease in Inari's eyes, Mai changed the subject. "Why don't you like the Millennium Puzzle?"

"Seriously?" Inari looked around and muttered in a low voice. "Why am I the only person who thinks that thing is damn creepy?! That eye follows you everywhere, how has no one else noticed?"

Mai laughed, and Inari knocked back some of her wine with a smile. "What a riot!" Mai gave her a thumbs-up and added, "If you want to look me up for a duel during the tournament, please feel free."

"You got it!"

Téa checked her phone, and suddenly blanched. "Uh, we've got a problem…"

There was a ticket inspector coming around and checking to make sure that there were no stowaways on board. So Joey devised an impossibly complicated plan to sneak Tristan, Téa, and Serenity around him. He texted Téa when the inspector had entered the compartment before the guys'. Quickly, Tristan arrived, looking apologetic for crashing the party, though he started asking questions about the bottle of wine three of the four women were sharing. Joey texted again when the inspector had left their compartment, and the three non-duelists snuck back into it. So as not to arouse suspicion, Yugi made sure that he was standing outside the door when the inspector came back out, explaining the second, sudden sound of the door opening. When he greeted the inspector, Inari came out of Mai's compartment, joining her friend and having her ticket checked in the process. Thanking the inspector, she and Yugi waited until he checked Mai's ticket and vanished into a different compartment to give their friends the all-clear. Yugi returned to his compartment, and the women went back to Mai's.

"That was unnecessary," Inari sighed, flopping back down into her seat. "That entire debacle was _completely_ unnecessary.

"Good news, though," Mai reminded them, "We're almost there."

"Finally." Serenity stretched and yawned. "I don't know what it is about long-distance travel, but I'm exhausted."

While Serenity fell asleep next to her, Inari stared out the window at the passing scenery. She had no idea where they were or where they were going, but she didn't care. She just hoped the hotel room was nice.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, there, everyone! Thank you all so much for the positive response I've been getting for this story, I'm so happy that you all like it! It makes me so excited to keep writing that I've decided to stop my once-a-week posting and ramp it up. I'll still make sure to post one chapter every Wednesday, but if I still have more, I'll put it up. Three chapters this last week! I hope I can keep up with it. Lots of love, WolfMoonSinger


	5. Let the Games Begin

"Welcome, everyone, to the Rose Tournament!"

Refreshed, rested, and ready to go, the gang stood in a mass of duelists while Maximillian Pegasus addressed them. Everyone but Duke and Serenity seemed a little tense, and Inari wondered why. Maybe they were just anxious for the duels to start. Inari knew that _she_ was. Her rose coin compact was clipped to her belt, along with her dueling deck.

Pegasus had rented out one of the ritziest hotels available, one that was about four hundred miles away from Domino… hence the train ride. Each duelist had their own room, though Inari had "half-heartedly" agreed to let Serenity and Téa bunk in hers while she crashed with Yugi and Atem. Right now, though, he was giving a speech from the largest ballroom, one of the three that he'd set aside just for the matches. The dueling arenas weren't in sight, but she assumed that they'd be brought in later.

"If you're an old veteran of Duelist Kingdom, you'll remember the use of star chips. This time around, we'll be using the golden rose coins that you were sent. Every time you duel, you must bet at least one of those coins. The first six participants to collect six of these tokens will move on to the semifinals. If you lose all of your rose coins, you will be disqualified. Those of you who don't make it to the semifinals, please feel free to stay and watch until the end of the tournament. For now, you have two days to collect your six rose coins. Good luck!"

He didn't go over the rules, for everyone had been sent a copy along with their rose coins. Inari sighed and stretched, shifting her weight back and forth between her legs. Never before had she thought that she'd be the proud owner of white leather pants. She'd splurged and sold another of her gold coins to buy new clothes for the tournament- the price had been generous, this month. In addition, she had a sweet, pale blue peplum top patterned with delicate white vines, a pink rose clipped into her hair, a flowery necklace made of pearls and pieces of rose quartz, and sky-blue shoes tipped with pale, pink peach blossoms. Also around her neck, on a long, thin, gold chain, was a ring, one with a simple ivy-vine design. The leaves were dotted with tiny emeralds. It fit her, but she felt that odd, wrenching pain in heart if she put it on her finger. Still, she was loathe to give it up, so a necklace it became. Instead of leaving it loose, like she usually preferred, she had part of her hair pulled back into a loose braid.

"The dueling begins in ninety minutes. In the meantime, the hotel is kindly offering breakfast."

"This is already better than Duelist Kingdom," Joey muttered under his breath.

They were herded towards the hotel's very spacious, buffet-style dining area, and the boys immediately ran off for the food-laden tables, leaving the girls to watch them in disbelief.

"Yeah, guys," Téa grunted mutinously, "We'll find seats for the whole group, not a problem."

"Here," said Serenity, taking Téa's arm, "There's one of those eight-seaters open." The three of them quickly claimed the table, using their bags to take up places until the guys got back. While they waited, Inari snuck off to an island dedicated to beverages, mixing herself up an iced coffee with lots of sugar and vanilla-flavored creamer. By the time she made it back, the drink was already half-gone.

Téa raised an eyebrow and teased, "You're going to have a heart attack within a year if you keep up that caffeine habit."

"Bah, my heart's as healthy as a horse… and at least I'm not _Joey_."

He'd come back bearing three heavily-laden plates of all kinds of things: eggs, bacon, pancakes swimming in syrup, greasy sausages, a stack of toast half a foot high... It looked like he'd just gotten something of everything. The other three men had what could be considered a normal amount of food, but before any of them could run off and grab another plate—and Joey and Tristan were definitely considering it— the girls left.

"Be right back."

"Watch our stuff-"

" _Guard it with your lives_."

Everything looked great, even if Inari couldn't stand the smell of brown sugar and maple syrup. Seriously, who put those two things together? So she just picked up a little of whatever sounded good first. Inari was absently rolling an apple around in her hand, staring into nothing rather than lost in any specific thought.

 _She giggled, but the voice wasn't hers. Not really. It sounded much younger. She reached for a fat, yellow apple hanging off of a tree, but couldn't quite make it. Another, very pale and much larger hand came from behind her and plucked the fruit from the branch, pressing it into her tiny fingers._

" _There you are, my girl."_

 _The woman's voice was soft, warm, breathy. It made her feel safe. Nothing bad was ever going to happen._

"Are you just going to stand there admiring fruit all day?"

Mai's voice made Inari jolt out of the… daydream? Memory? Whatever it was. Laughing nervously, she dropped the apple onto her plate. "Oh, hey, there, Mai! It's nice to see you."

"You, too…" She glanced down at Inari's food. "Vegan?"

"What? No- er…" Her plate was full, but covered in nothing but fruit. "... guess I'm just not feeling the meat this morning." Someone sniggered a few feet away, and Inari blushed. Idiots and their double entendres. Mai merely grabbed a yellow apple, throwing Inari a smile and a wink. Trying to recover, Inari asked, "So, er, where are you sitting?"

"Nowhere, yet."

Of course, Inari offered her the last chair at their table, which Mai graciously accepted. They sat together (after Inari quickly threw a couple of hard-boiled eggs into her fruit salad), Joey on Mai's left and Téa on Inari's right. As the group ate and talked amongst each other, Inari stayed out of most of the conversation. The caffeine running through her system now, combined with her nerves, was making her jittery, and she was drumming her fingers against her thigh. That voice was on replay in her head, over and over. Where had she heard it? Whose was it? She'd slipped a finger through the emerald ring, twisting it on her finger absently. She felt so uncomfortable for a multitude of reasons, and couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. In fact, when she looked around, she _did_ notice several people watching… Yugi.

"Why are they all staring at us?" she cut in suddenly, interrupting some silly story that Tristan was telling about being a robot monkey.

The rest of the crew fell quiet, followed her gaze, and balked a little. Those who were staring stopped and, many red in the face, went back to their breakfast.

"It's me," Joey sang cockily, leaning his chair back on two legs with a huge, shit-eating grin. "They can't help it. They're in the presence of the second-place winner of Duelist Kingdom, after all."

"And not because the King of Games is in the room," Mai replied evenly, watching Yugi intensely.

The jokes relaxed her, and she smiled at Yugi, who returned it. Mai leaned in closer to the table. "So, Yugi, know who you're dueling first?"

He laughed. "I have no idea," he admitted, "Maybe I'll just take on whoever challenges me first."

"You might not have wanted to say that," Duke chuckled.

"Yugi!"

"Here comes another fan—" Joey teased, but he balked when he saw a short, dark-haired kid running up to their table. "Mokuba?!"

"Hey, I didn't know you'd been invited!" Yugi exclaimed with a grin.

Mokuba grinned, arms proudly held akimbo. "Yeah, I've been playing the game a bit back home in my spare time. I'm pretty good, if I do say so myself."

"Hey," Joey grumbled, looking paranoid. "Does that mean Kaiba's here, too?"

"Nah, he hates this game." Mokuba leaned against Joey's chair. "Says it's too easy."

Inari giggled and added, "Filed under 'reasons why I _love_ this game.'" That's when Mokuba noticed her for the first time, coming around to her with his hand held out. She stood to shake it.

"Hey, I'm Mokuba Kaiba," he introduced, "What's your name?"

"Inari Winters." She grinned, a warm feeling growing inside her. He seemed like a sweet kid. "May I ask what kind of deck you use?"

He rubbed his nose with his thumb, winking an eye. "If I told ya, I wouldn't have the element of surprise if you and I dueled."

"Oh, I don't know if I could take on a Kaiba," Inari demurred, sitting back down, "You must be much better than I am. I'd lose for sure."

While a starry-eyed Mokuba blushed, his ego inflated, one of Pegasus's employees announced that the dueling was about to start. "All duelists should now make their way to the dueling arenas and may commence challenging their opponents." The girls snagged bottles of water and shoved them into their purses, not willing to have to keep going back and forth for hydration.

As they abandoned their table and followed the crowd, Inari felt a hand grab hers. Atem was back in control, giving her a sweet, confident smile. "You'll do great," he reassured, "I know you'll definitely make it to the semifinals."

"Fine, then duel me first," she demanded.

He did a double-take. "You're kidding."

"I'm completely serious." Her eyes turned hard, her mouth set in a determined frown. "Come on, Atem. Prove to me that you don't think I can't handle myself and _duel me_."

"No."

She huffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Fine. Come back when you grow up and can fight me like a man." Inari marched off, surreptitiously pulling a pack of gum out of her pocket and popping some into her mouth. Chewing was her worst anxious habit, so she medicated with gum.

They arrived back in the hall where Pegasus had given his speech, and now the dueling arenas were set up. There were forty people competing, and the six stations were filling up fast. She knew that there were four others in another room, and two in the smallest hall. That meant some people would have to wait and take turns.

"Alright, who wants to bring it on?" she called out. And… everyone ignored her. Great. Looking around, she saw that she'd accidentally wandered away from her friends. They must have gone into one of the smaller halls. Inari was alone.

"Uhm, excuse me…" Delighted, Inari turned around to see a teenager shyly clutching his deck to his chest.

"Hi!" Inari beamed at him, a little (okay, a _lot_ ) too excited. "Are you here to challenge me, kid?"

"W-well… you're friends with Yugi Mutou, right? I saw you talking with him."

Friends? _Really_? "Y-yeah, sort of…"

The teenager shuffled his feet, looking down. "D'you… do you think you could introduce me to him? I want to duel him so bad, but I'm so nervous!"

The color drained out of Inari's face. Enthusiasm lost, Inari grumbled, "No, I'm sorry. He's… we're…" She straightened up and put on a false, confident grin. "He'll respect you more if you do it yourself. Don't worry, you can do it. Just believe in yourself." Holy crap, the gang's speeches were starting to rub off on her, and she'd only known them for sixth months. Briefly, she mused if she was going to turn into Téa sooner or later.

His face brightened up. "Really?" he exclaimed. "Wow… thank you so much, miss!"

He bolted off, leaving her in the middle of a half-hearted wave. "You're welcome…" she weakly called after him. "Great."

A few more people raced down the hall, extremely excited. "Come one! Yugi Mutou's getting ready to duel!"

She watched them, popping another gum bubble sadly. Really, she should go watch Yugi and Atem's match. Inari was starting to feel bad for snapping at him, and wanted to be there to cheer him on with the rest of the gang. More and more people were running off to watch the King of Games play an early game, leaving many of the arenas abandoned. Inari got her feet moving, but a small, sweet voice behind her stopped her in her tracks.

"Excuse me… you're Inari Winters, yes?"

"Oh… yes." Inari sighed and turned to face her fellow duelist. "But Yugi Mutou is in a duel right now, so I can't be introducing people to him."

"No, that's not it." The duelist was a young woman, about Serenity's age, with a blonde, braided updo and sweet brown eyes. She was dressed in a floaty, lavender dress, white shoes, and a chiffon sash that had a deck tucked into it. "My name is Elizabeth Hanser. I'd… actually like to duel you, if that's alright."

Mollified, Inari squealed, "Really?!" She cleared her throat, regaining her composure, and looked back towards the hall's exit. Well… Atem would be fine without her there. "Yeah, sounds good," she told Elizabeth. "Let's do it!"

"Great!" She laughed, and the two women went to the nearest arena. "And we don't even have to wait for a machine."

 _~The Next Room Over~_

"C'mon, Yugi, you got this!"

Atem's face hardened as he looked out over his field. The terrain was a mixture of mountain and maze, making movement difficult. His deck leader, the Dark Magician, stood in a defended corner—that is, he was tucked in next to a pair of labyrinth spaces. He had four spaces to summon cards, and only two spaces from which he could be attacked directly. But his opponent's cards were closing in. Mokuba looked smug, happy that his strategy was working. As expected, he was quite the duelist. His deck leader was a purple, dragon-like beast with two heads, both at the ends of what should have been arms. There was no head on top of the neck, just a large spike. Its large wings beat threateningly every now and again. The Twin-Headed Behemoth was grotesque, to say the least.

"Attack, Punished Eagle!" Mokuba declared. One of his face-down monsters, something he'd fused together earlier, flipped over to reveal a giant, green eagle that swooped in to attack one of Atem's own monsters. He lost another five hundred life points.

" _Inari loves that card_ ," he thought to himself.

" _She calls it the BDSM Bird,_ " Yugi sighed inside their combined minds. " _That's not love, that's being twelve; Joey thinks it's clever, too. Focus, Pharaoh, focus!"_

" _She was really angry with me earlier… I guess that's why she's not here watching. I'm such an idiot, I should've just dueled her like she asked."_

" _Oh my God, I swear I'm going to take control again if you aren't going to play the game."_

Atem shook it off and powered up his Dark Magician Girl, taking out the Punished Eagle. Spectating, Serenity was looking around for Inari.

"It's not like her to miss one of Yugi's duels…" she fretted.

Téa frowned, scratching the back of her head. "True. I know she got mad at him a little bit ago, but that normally doesn't stop her from being supportive…" She tapped her foot. In fact, she'd texted Inari right before Yugi and Atem's duel started, hoping she'd make it in time. Téa was worried that there hadn't been a response. "…. I'm going to go look for her," she decided. Lightly pushing on Joey's arm, she muttered, "Hey, I'll be right back. Text me if something big happens."

As she ran off, Joey called after her, "What about the duel?! You can't just go running off—"

"She'll be back," Serenity repeated. "It's important."

"If Yug looks over here and sees that half his friends are skippin' out on his game—"

"Well, Téa's trying to fix that. Calm down, Joey, Yugi will be fine."

Inari and Elizabeth had just set out their deck leaders—Inari's Illusory Gentleman, and Elizabeth's Dark Plant. The creature's large, red face looked like an Alice in Wonderland flower gone evil. The eyes stared the Illusory Gentleman down, twitching menacingly on its thick, thorn-covered vine. It creeped Inari out, but she laughed it off.

"Cute," she said to Elizabeth, "How fitting for the Rose Tournament."

"My monsters are anything but _cute_ ," Elizabeth insisted, laying down a face-down card next to her deck leader, in defense mode.

Inari scanned her hand, and threw down a face-down monster in front of her deck leader. "Good. I like scary."

Téa came barreling in, charging over to Inari's dueling arena. "Hey, learn to check your phone when it vibrates!" she yelled angrily.

Inari looked down, surprised. "Why?" she asked, reaching for her phone, "What's going on?"

"Yugi's in a duel—"

"Yeah, I know."

" _What_?!" Téa huffed angrily, practically climbing up into the arena to go after her friend. "And you're not there to support him? We've all noticed, and he's _really_ distracted!"

"What a five-year-old," Inari grumbled, but the insult was masking the guilt boiling in her stomach. "I'm kind of in the middle of something, here!"

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"

Inari sighed. "No." Looking back down to Téa, she added, "Tell the guys I said good luck. I know he'll be fine. Who's he fighting anyway?"

"Mokuba."

"Aw, how cute—"

"'Nar, he's getting his butt kicked, I wouldn't call it cute."

"Ugh, jeez. Listen…" She sighed and ran a hand through her thick, shaggy curls, brushing her bangs out of her eyes. "I'll be there as soon as I finish this fight, okay? Tell him… I believe in him."

"Right on, love bird."

" _Téa!_ " She watched helplessly, but went back to her duel before Téa left the room. "Let's just get this over with."

Téa was out of breath when she made it back to the gang, and Mokuba was even farther ahead. It looked like Atem had rebounded a bit, at least. He looked down, confused. "Téa?" he called out. "What happened?"

"Inari's in a damn _duel_ ," she panted to the group. "She said she'll be here to cheer you on just as soon as she's done. She believes in you!"

Atem frowned, and whipped Yugi's phone out of his pocket. Dialing a number, he waited until he heard Inari pick up on the other line.

" _Oh my God,"_ He bit back a laugh at her exasperation. " _Did Téa not tell you what I was doing?_ "

"She did," he confirmed. "I want you to know… I'll win this before you even step off the platform. I want to be there to see you duel in your first tournament."

She snorted, and he smiled. " _You're on_ , _jerk_ ," she said cockily before hanging up.

"You done worrying about your _girlfriend_?" Mokuba teased.

"Don't worry," Atem agreed with a confident smile, putting the phone back in his pocket. "I'm one hundred percent back in this match."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Ah, finally back into the dueling. It'll pick up later this week. By the way, if you want to see sets of Inari's outfits, visit my profile on Polyvore. My username is **wintergreenwitch** , and they're in a collection labelled **Inari Winters: Frozen Memories**

Thanks again for reading! Until the next chapter, WolfMoonSinger

 **Edit:** So, I noticed that I really didn't edit this chapter well. Hopefully it's a bit better, now! Thanks, everyone!


	6. Precious

Inari's heart dropped into her stomach when she saw the randomly-generated terrain: out of forty-nine possible spaces, twenty-one were Crush spaces. These squares would destroy any monster with 1500 attack points or higher, so, unless she dug up a terraforming card, and fast, she had to be extremely careful. Elizabeth didn't look too worried, though. The rest of the map was covered in forest. That, Inari could handle. Secretly, she was glad that they'd only decided to bet one rose coin apiece.

"Let's start!"

She raised an eyebrow at her first hand. It was relatively terrible, but she could make it work. There were several low-levelled monsters, but one of them was a special favorite. Discarding the useless monsters, like Key Mace and Shadow Specter, Inari placed the card Fairy's Gift down in front of her deck leader. The monster was a pale, minty-green sprite with big, beautiful, blue butterfly wings, and only 1400 attack points. Perfect for the Crush terrain. Plus, there was her special ability.

"I reveal my face-down monster, Fairy's Gift, and get eight hundred extra life points!" Inari said, watching the fairy shower her deck leader with magical, glowing powder.

Elizabeth's poker face was flawless. "You shouldn't do that so early when Crush terrain is involved," she advised. "Now I know exactly how strong your monster is. Getting around it will be easy."

"Just make your move."

"I move my deck leader forward and play this card face-down. Oh, I also get fifty extra life points."

Inari was so confused. "But… y-you didn't play anything…" Elizabeth smiled.

"Special abilities are so useful, aren't they? I'm particularly fond of the one my deck leader has. It gives me fifty life points every turn."

She set out her freshly-drawn Monster Eye card, turning it face-up in defense mode. "My friend here lets me flip over the last card you played face-down," she explained. But she almost wish that she hadn't. The card turned out to be a Living Vase, a creepy-looking, clearly Shinto-inspired, dark-green creature that squirmed around on roots with pink antennae that vaguely resembled flowers. "Lovely…" Inari commented with a grimace. "Thanks, Monster Eye, you're done."

Elizabeth had moved her deck leader onto the Crush terrain, as well as her monster. She wasn't going to make this any kind of easy. Not having a decent monster card, Inari got rid of two more low-level creatures and set down Magic Jammer, hoping it would come in handy.

But Elizabeth's sights were set on Inari, and she started pushing her Living Vase towards Fairy's Gift. In a fight, the Vase would definitely win, so Inari took her spellcasting fairy to the Crush zone. Maybe she could get a hit on Elizabeth while she was at it. She also put down Water Girl. Elizabeth gave up the chase, putting the Living Vase into defense mode while two cards surreptitiously slithered along the outer edges of the map. Inari couldn't believe what was going on with her hand. Everything she drew was useless! Every turn, it was like she discarded three more monsters and traps that she didn't need.

"I can't take this…" she grumbled to herself. Getting desperate, she made her Fairy's Gift go after one of Elizabeth's defense-mode cards.

A big, red anthropomorphic Mushroom Man popped out of the ground, and swiftly withered away under the magic of Fairy's Gift. It was too bad that it hadn't cost any life points. Meanwhile, Living Vase was up and moving again, heading for Water Girl. Luckily, Inari drew her terraforming spell card, Yami. Now, she just had to get it as close to the middle of the map as she could.

"Trying to catch me, Elizabeth?" she asked with a light, teasing tone. "Good luck. I put this card in defense mode."

"I attack your defense mode card," Elizabeth replied calmly. Water Girl, a blue-robed nymph, was soundly defeated.

"I play the spell card Yami!" Inari called out. It wasn't dead-center, but it still got full coverage and took out a good fraction of the Crush terrain, changing it, and a portion of the forest, into Darkness. "Hmm, and now I combine these two monsters," she went on, "Creating La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp! Attack her Living Vase!"

The terrain boost meant that Inari got a solid hit in, bringing Elizabeth down to just under 3000 life points. Just to get rid of it, Inari attacked another defending card with Fairy's Gift. A half-rabbit, half-kangaroo with Edward Scissorhands-esque talons fell, and now Fairy's Gift was staring the Dark Plant in the face.

Of course, Dark Plant moved, coaxing Inari's monsters out of the dark spaces. Still, she felt comfortable, and played Red Medicine for good measure. The Illusory Gentleman was doused in the potion bottle's liquid contents, bring her life points over five thousand. She wanted to use La Jinn to attack more defending cards, but the forest terrain weakened him significantly, and he was too powerful to be on crush spaces. There wasn't a good option, here, so she risked the face-down card.

"You've activated Yashinoki's special ability!" Elizabeth called out, and she gained five hundred extra life points. It didn't stop La Jinn from cutting down the demonic palm-tree.

When it was Elizabeth's turn, she attacked La Jinn with a monster that Inari didn't even get to see, because suddenly, all of the monsters on the field vanished.

"What in the _world?!_ " Inari exclaimed, "That move gave me whiplash, what just happened?"

Elizabeth shrugged and gave a wink. "I cleared the board. Give me something better than a silly genie and a fairy. I want to see those legendary water monsters I've heard about!"

Blinking, Inari said incredulously, "You're nuts." She checked the clock on her phone. They were basically starting over, and it had already been twenty minutes. At this rate, she wasn't going to make it to Atem's game. She tossed out Kuriboh and Fairywitch, setting down Takuhee, one of her beloved winged beasts. It was a large, sandy-colored eagle with a long, plumed tail, and created a wicked fusion monster… if only she had the right card. "Show me what you've got, Elizabeth."

Apparently, all she had was another face-down card… and fifty more life points. This was getting ridiculous. Damn, still no Aqua Dragon. Inari set down a spell card called Magical Neutralizing Force Field; it removed all face-up trap cards on the field, and got rid of any point bonuses or reductions that weren't based on terrain. She had a love-hate relationship with it, often accidentally using it to weaken herself without any other benefit, but it was known to be useful on occasion. To her frustration, Elizabeth was careful to keep her deck leader on the crush spaces. At least Takuhee was _just_ weak enough to traverse it.

On her next turn, Inari finally drew it—Aqua Dragon. It went to the side of Takuhee, and she wished it could use the Horn of the Unicorn, which she had sitting in her hand, but its special ability could get her through the duel... she hoped.

Elizabeth's Dark Plant consumed a random card in the forest, doing everything to move away from Inari's monsters. It was perfect for Inari to start lining up her creatures into a good attacking position. She put down her other favorite winged beast, Crow Goblin—a humanoid blackbird with a long, dust-colored robe and a book in one of its taloned hands. It was stronger than Takuhee, but the two were a good team. Elizabeth pushed herself back into the corner, and Inari shoved her front line towards her with encouragement.

"Takuhee," she cried out, "Attack that face-down card!"

The massive eagle screeched, rising from its card as it overtook a plant creature called Darkworld Thorns, blasting it away with a strong gust of wind. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes.

"Your bird is spellbound for one turn for that," she growled. Inari nodded, like she was thinking about all the possibilities.

"Yeah… I can wait."

In fact, she didn't entirely have to, as her Aqua Dragon and Crow Goblin were still on the offensive, creeping closer and closer to Elizabeth's defenses. "I combine two monsters and keep the fusion face-down," she said on her next turn. She was so close. Maybe the fusion could help…

The Dark Plant was having difficulties keeping up on its escape route, but it still managed to stay out of Inari's reach. She put down the trap Mesmeric Control, and decided to use her Aqua Dragon to attack a face-down card. The fact that it was on a crush space was irrelevant, as long as it was a monster. Luckily for her, it was—Dark Plant's dark green cousin, Abyss Flower. Elizabeth's eyes got big and round as she watched the huge, blue dragon rear up from its card and drown her monster in a blast of magic-infused water.

"Do you like him, now that you've met him?" Inari taunted. "Personally, I like his special ability—he makes any space he battles on a Sea space, automatically giving him an attack point boost."

"Sounds handy."

"Oh, very. Takuhee, take care of that face-down card for me."

The card happened to be a lovely-looking monster called the Barrel Lily. It was another Alice-in-Wonderland flower, a small cluster of fire lilies with faces, and it was destroyed easily. But, again, her Takuhee was spellbound. That suited her just fine, though. Aqua Dragon was in attacking range of the Dark Plant deck leader, at the moment. One more turn was all she needed to get at Elizabeth's life points directly.

"Attack, Snakeyashi!" Elizabeth called, but she had attacked Mesmeric Control.

"Thanks for activating my trap," Inari giggled. "It both lowers your monster's attack points and spellbinds it for a turn." But Elizabeth had moved out of range for her Aqua Dragon. Double damn.

Out of desperation, Elizabeth sacrificed a too-strong monster to the crush terrain. Both duelists were starting to run low on cards in their decks. But, thanks to her special ability, Elizabeth was almost back up to four thousand life points.

"Mermalion!" Inari ordered, "Take down Snakeyashi."

"Merma- _what_?" Elizabeth asked, looking puzzled. Inari rolled her eyes.

" _Marine Beast_ ," she corrected herself, "But, come on. It's totally a mermalion."

In truth, the monster was half brown-scaled fish, half purple-colored lion. Inari was known by her friends for giving her cards strange nicknames, and Mermalion was the least odd. Especially compared to the 'BDSM Bird' and—

"Oh, Precious~" she sang to her Aqua Dragon, "Be a dear and move over for me."

"You named your dragon _Precious_ ," Elizabeth said in a flat, deadpan tone.

"Yep. I also fuse two cards together and end my turn." She'd just combined her Fiend Sword with another winged-beast, creating BDSM Bird—uh, Punished Eagle. The gang was back together. She made the pale green, feathered monster target the face-down card that had somehow meandered its way in front of the Illusory Gentleman.

Elizabeth ran away again, and Inari felt the clock really ticking down on her bet with Atem. How much longer was this duel going to go on? "Hinotama!" she called out, placing down a spell card, and a rain of small fireballs showered over the Dark Plant, taking out a hundred life points.

"Sorry, Mermalion," she murmured, "But I really need the Spirit of the Winds right now." Her powered-up sylph, now holding the power-up Book of Secret Arts under her card, took his place. "Spirit of the Winds, attack that face-down card!" she commanded.

The pale-blue nymph drew out the Green Phantom King and destroyed it, bringing Elizabeth's points down to 1350; though she was spellbound in the process. Inari smiled. "Awesome."

"Damn…" Elizabeth frowned. "I was counting on you not paying attention." She shifted cards again. "Let's see how you deal with _this_ formation," she said.

She made Inari face a hard decision—Aqua Dragon was surrounded on two sides by crush spaces, and forest on his third (he was on the outer edge of the map, so there was no fourth). Did she let him take on the crush space with a defense-mode card, even though it might not be a monster and would, in that case, destroy him? Or, did she play it safe and let him sit there until she could get Takuhee out? Well, she hadn't gotten this far by playing it safe.

"Aqua Dragon, attack!"

It was a green woman, with thorny rose vines for a body from the waist down. Arlownay. "Thank God," Inari breathed, as her dragon overtook the creature. One less crush space to worry about.

"Mystical Sheep!" Elizabeth ordered, revealing a really cute, fluffy blue lamb, "Attack her face-down card!"

But, it was Punished Eagle, who swatted Mystical Sheep away easily with his talons. Aqua Dragon went for another face-down card, unconcerned with the terrain since it was merely forest. Not for long, however, since it immediately became ocean. Dark Plant was almost entirely surrounded by Inari's creatures. Any way it moved, it was still within striking distance for at least one of them.

With a light laugh, Inari said, "This is it, kid!"

Elizabeth looked wildly for another escape route, but relaxed when she saw none. She looked resigned to her loss. "It was a good game, Inari," she conceded. "Go ahead, end it."

Inari nodded to her, no longer smiling. "Aqua Dragon," she ordered solemnly. "Finish her."

The beast lumbered over to the Dark Plant, never minding the Crush space, especially not after it turned into blue water under his feet. He reared back on his hind legs a little, then slashed at Elizabeth's deck leader with his large talons. Letting out a victory roar, the Aqua Dragon turned to Inari and the Illusory Gentleman so they could see his triumph.

"Winner," the automated voice on the arena said coolly, "Inari Winters; Deck Leader, Illusory Gentleman."

But she almost didn't hear it for the burst of applause that came from a few feet away. Inari turned and almost vaulted herself over the side of the steps when she saw all of her friends gathered around to watch, even a respectable amount of other spectators who, Inari realized, most likely spilled over from Atem and Yugi's match with Mokuba. Atem was there, wearing a broad, pride-filled smile, and half-jogged to the arena to meet her, pulling her in for a tight hug.

"Good work," he murmured, his fingers lost in her hair on the back of her head.

Finally, she let herself get excited over the fact that she _just won her first match_. She pulled away from Atem and, with a loud squeal, bounded over to their other friends.

"When did you all even _get_ here?!" she asked, having her hair ruffled by Joey.

"About when you told the whole world what you named your Aqua Dragon," Tristan teased with a sly smirk. " _Precious_ , huh?"

"Don't know it, he _is_ precious."

" _Ahem_."

Inari jumped. "Oh, right!" She strode towards Elizabeth, holding out her hand to shake it. "That was a lot of fun," she said with a smile. "I've never seen half those monsters before."

"Plants aren't for everyone," Elizabeth agreed, "But I enjoy them. Here, one rose coin as promised." She held out her hand, offering one of the red rose coins. Inari took it, pressing it gently into one of the empty slots of the case in her belt, feeling her smile grow wider, and wrapped her arms around Elizabeth.

Squealing, she squeezed the ever-loving crap out of her, saying, "Ohhhh, thank you for dueling me, I really appreciated it."

Flustered, Elizabeth awkwardly patted Inari's shoulder and choked out, "Y-y-you're welcome…?"

"Oops—" Inari released her, embarrassed at her own enthusiasm, and watched awkwardly as Elizabeth gasped for air. "I just mean…. Ah, never mind. It was a good game, that's all."

Coughing, she said, "That's fine. It was." She brushed off her rumpled dress and smiled. "I have to leave, I was supposed to call a friend after my first match… It was nice meeting you."

"And you, as well." They waved in tandem, and Elizabeth walked off, digging around in her shoulder bag. Inari looked back at Atem. "Hey, how did your game with Mokuba go?"

"He kicked butt, of course!" Joey said proudly, clapping a hand on Atem's shoulder. "You shoulda seen it—"

"I was _going_ to," Inari snidely pointed out, raising her eyebrow at Atem, "But _someone_ rushed his duel and finished before I could get there."

"Ah, yes, it's completely my fault. I'm so sorry." The ironic tone not lost on anyone, he shook his head, throwing her a playful eye roll, and followed along as Joey threw his arms around both Inari and Tristan's shoulders.

"Now it's my turn!" he declared, "Look out, world, 'cause Joey Wheeler's on the warpath!"

"Ooh, I'm shaking."

"Shaddup Tristan."

" _Ouch_! Joey, what is it with you and stepping on my foot?!"

"Well, 'Nari, maybe if you weren't three feet shorter—"

" _I'm five-two!_ "

"Shortstack."

"Asshole." She ducked out from under Joey's arm and hung back to walk with Atem. "I'm proud of you," she murmured, giving him a quick, one-armed squeeze. "I'll admit it, I'm very surprised the lot of you weren't shouting out encouragement from the sidelines like you always do."

"You were doing fine. I didn't think you needed it." Throwing her a quick wink, he teased, "You're always telling me how you can do everything by yourself, anyway."

She tried not to get her hopes up. "Does that mean you'll duel me, now?"

" _No_." He smiled, taking her by the hand. "What if I knocked you out of the tournament in your second match?"

"How confident you are that you'll win," she retorted.

"I tell you what," he relented, hearing the hurt in her voice. "Get two more rose coins, and I'll do it." His face went hot as she leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you."

They were brought out of their conversation by Joey. "'Eyyyyy, look who it is!"

"Joey! Yugi! It's so good to see you!"

Atem's hand was shook by a muscular young man with deeply tanned skin, long black hair pulled into an unkempt ponytail, and a thick scar running down the side of his face. Dark eyes skipped over everyone who wasn't a Duelist Kingdom finalist. "Mako Tsunami," Atem said, looking mildly surprised. "How are you?"

"Very well." Grinning, Mako added, "I've been itching for a rematch with _you_ ever since Duelist Kingdom!"

"And I've been wanting one since Battle City!" Joey cut in. "C'mon, let's duel!"

Stretching her arms, Inari yawned, "It'll be nice to watch someone else duel."

"You can't be tired, already," said Téa. "You've only been in one game."

"Caffeine crash, so sue me."

The guys had decided that Mako would first battle Joey, then Atem, since the former hadn't yet played. They meandered over to a new, free arena, and Inari found herself standing next to Serenity. She looked excited, her brown eyes glowing with pride at seeing Joey send out the Flame Swordsman as his deck leader. Even as their other friends were calling out "Good luck!" and "Take him down," Serenity just watched with a content smile.

"Eager to see your brother dueling?" Inari asked her quietly.

She nodded. "Yeah. I was there for the last half of Battle City, which was exciting… but it's nice to not have to worry about him." While the gang wouldn't talk a whole lot about Duelist Kingdom, they _did_ occasionally spill about Battle City. Joey had placed in the finals there, too. "You go, big brother!" she called out. He flashed the thumbs-up and a cheesy grin to her.

"You have such a cute fan-club," Mako chortled.

Inari taunted, "Come down here, I'll give you cute!"

"Hey, half-pint," Joey cut in, "Your trash talk is terrible."

"Say that to my face!" she shouted.

"I would, but you're always _too close to the ground_."

"Wheeler, we're dueling, here!" Mako reminded him.

"What a loud-mouth bunch of Neanderthals," said a shrill, scratchy voice. It was loud, like a stage-whisper, and coming from somewhere behind them. Inari turned, missing Atem's face darkening.

A scrawny-looking young man about Yugi's age with a pale blue bowl cut and yellow horn-rimmed glasses was pretending very poorly to not recognize the "uncivilized peons" he was talking about. He did a mock double-take, his eyes boring into the back of Atem's head.

"Ah, Yugi Mutou! I didn't recognize you, there."

"Hello, Weevil," Atem stated dully, refusing to look. But Inari was staring, and couldn't help it.

"Who the _hell_ —"

"I should have known you would be invited here," the kid—Weevil, continued, completely ignoring Inari. "I'm a little more surprised about your barking _dog_ , though."

Atem sighed, closing his eyes like he was trying to _will_ Weevil away. "Yes, of course the _finalists_ of Duelist Kingdom would be invited to Pegasus's next tournament. Why you're here, however—"

"Ouch. Yugi, you wound me." But he looked anything other than hurt by the verbal slight. "I'd been hoping to challenge you to a duel, but after seeing you take down Seto Kaiba's little brother, I think I'd prefer to find someone easy for a warm-up victory."

" _Fantastic_." Atem gave him a slightly terrifying forced-smile, "Why don't you go do that and leave us alone?"

"I think I will, and I already have the perfect victim in mind." Suddenly, Weevil's pointed finger was aimed directly at Inari's nose. "You, there. Yugi's _girlfriend_. I challenge you to a duel."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, everyone, thanks for getting through another chapter with me! This time, I tried to detail the duel a little more, but I still feel like I fell a little short. It was also 4am when I wrote that duel because I make poor choices about Inari's opponents. Fun fact, Elizabeth is using the deck that Bakura uses in Duelist of the Roses.

Thanks again for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I'd greatly appreciate it if you reviewed, favorite, all that jazz.

Lots of love, WolfMoonsinger


	7. Bugs Vs Zombies

"She's/I'm not my/his girlfriend."

Atem and Inari looked at each other right after they both said that, their expressions mirrored mixtures of surprise and _"What do you mean, we're not a couple?"_ Even Téa gave them a look of disbelief. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Atem sighed, "We'll… talk about it later."

Hurt, confused, but not put-off by the challenge, Inari smacked Weevil's pointing hand out of her face and channeled her anger towards him, instead. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's not polite to point?" she snapped. "You're on, asshole."

"Inari, no," Atem murmured to her, "He's just trying to get a rise out of you, don't—"

"You want to go because you think I'll be easy?" she continued to Weevil, cutting Atem off entirely. "Fine. Let's put up all of our rose coins, and I'll kick you straight out of the tournament."

"What a novel idea. But I only have two coins."

"Fine, then. Two. If you win, I'll have to start over with one, and I probably won't get enough in time to make the semifinals. Either way, one of us loses a chance at winning."

Weevil's eyes flicked to Atem for a brief second, then back to Inari. "All the dueling arenas are taken, right now. Why don't we take twenty minutes to prepare and wait for one to open up?"

"Perfect. I'll be waiting."

As he walked off, Téa shuddered and pulled a disgusted face. "Blegh, Weevil is such a little creep. I can't believe you're going to duel him."

"Trust me," Inari laughed, reaching for her cards, "I'm going to keep it as short as I possibly can. The less interaction we have, the happier I'll be."

Atem grabbed her by the arm, stopping her from pulling out her deck. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Of course you don't," she sighed. "Thanks for the input, _Dad_."

He let her go, watching her going through the cards not only in her deck, but in the plastic case in her bag—she'd brought her spare cards along just in case. Atem pursed his lips while she silently, but visibly fretted over which monsters to put in, until finally—

"No, keep Magical Neutralizing Force Field, you'll be grateful for it later."

"Thanks," she said coldly. "I think I know how to set up for a battle with bugs."

"I'm just trying to help," he hissed.

"Then stop your constant nagging," she shot back. " _Ma Déesse_ , it's no _wonder_ we're not together." He looked at her as if she'd slapped him, and she realized what had come tumbling out of her mouth. "I… I didn't mean—"

"Aw yeah!" Joey suddenly yelled. "Take 'im down, Thousand Dragon!"

The wizened orange dragon batted away a scaly red sea serpent on Mako's side of the map, bringing his life points down.

"Let's just get back to watching the duel," Atem said roughly, crossing his arms over his chest. She winced.

"Please, I'm sorry," she whispered after a few minutes.

"I don't like that he only challenged you to get to me."

"Yeah, well, neither do I."

"Then why are you doing it?" Doing a double-take at the match, Atem called out, "You've got this Joey! You've beat him before, I know you can do it again!" Joey gave him a thumbs-up, seemingly satisfied that Tristan, Téa, and Serenity were taking up the bulk of the cheering.

Inari leaned in just enough so that her shoulder was touching Atem's. "He insulted me. _And_ you. I'm not letting that slide."

He sighed, and put an arm around her waist. "I wish you would," he implored softly. "I want you to have _fun_ , here, not get caught up in old, petty feuds."

"It _is_ fun, though," she snorted. "I might as well defeat him in a card game if I can't…." She stopped herself. What had she been going to say?

He glanced her way. "Can't what?"

Shaking her head slowly, she replied, "… Nothing. I just want to see the look on his face when I beat him." She put her hands up to her mouth and shouted, "C'mon, Joey, it's just a fish! You've kicked the asses of enough of mine! Kill it!"

"If Yugi starts growing grey hair at this age," he joked, kissing the side of her head, "It's going to be your fault, and I'll be sure he knows it."

"Yeah, yeah," she laughed. "By the way, about that 'not-your-girlfriend' thing—"

"What're ya yapping about down there?" Joey exclaimed, frowning, "You're supposed to be watching the game!"

"Just how great you're doing, Joey!" Inari covered quickly, wordlessly cursing him. She moved away from Atem, and finished tweaking her deck.

By the time her twenty Weevil-free minutes were up, Joey was ahead of Mako by at least a thousand life points. She looked around, and spotted a bright blue headed bobbing across the room, letting out a sigh. Squeezing her deck, she held it out to Atem.

"Could you cut it for me? For luck?"

He turned, seeing Weevil, and shuffled her cards in a complex way she'd never been able to learn. Giving them a kiss, he asked, "Do you want me to come with you?"

"Nah. He'll spend way too much time making those snide comments to _you_ , and not me." Inari ran a hand through her bangs, pushing them to the side and out of her eyes. "If he has the gall to challenge me to duel, he'd better be concentrating on _me_." With a sigh, she added, "Wish me luck," giving him a quick kiss as she darted off, throwing Joey an extra, " _Kick his ass!_ "

"Well, it's about time," Weevil said as she approached. "You've kept me waiting long enough."

"Two minutes," she huffed, mounting the arena steps. "Let's just get this over with." She entered her name into the system and slapped down her two rose coins.

" _Duelists, please select your deck leader."_

"You're alone," he remarked, "I'm a little disappointed, I thought Yugi cared for you a little more than that. You'd think he'd be here to watch me defeat you."

"Look, buddy," Inari said irritably, setting down her Illusory Gentleman as her deck leader, "Cut the crap. You're dueling me, not Yugi, so act like it."

"Aw, how sweet to hear you begging for my attention," Weevil chortled, his tone tinged with sarcasm. If he wanted to get a embarrass her and make her angry, it worked, and she flushed red. "But have it your way. I choose Basic Insect as my deck leader." Basic Insect was just that- a giant, green praying mantis. In the true manner of an offended dandy, the Illusory Gentleman threw his gauntlet down at it and Weevil to declare his challenge.

Inari drew her first hand, and saw Magical Neutralizing Force Field before anything else. "I play one card face down, and I'm done," she announced, putting down her magic card. Her starter deck had had a few insect monsters, and she knew that, for the most part, they relied on magic and special abilities for their power, much like her water monsters. This spell card was perfect.

"I lay one card face-down and move my Basic Insect."

She raised her eyebrow, wishing he had more expressions than just "obnoxious and knows something you don't," and decided to play the same game he was. Inari also made her Illusory Gentleman move, mirroring Weevil's deck leader, and set down the Ancient Elf to meet his face-down card.

"Kamakiriman!" Weevil cried, "Destroy her face-down card!"

A tall, green warrior that looked like another praying mantis slashed the Ancient Elf to pieces, and Weevil moved his Basic Insect over again. Why was he cornering himself? Drawing and playing Ameba face-down, she struggled to figure out how best to attack him.

There was a space of wasteland right in front of her, and she powered-up her Dragon Zombie with a spell called Dark Energy. If her dragon was forced to move from the space, it would take a real hit to its attack points, but it would at least make for good defense.

"I set Kamakiriman into defense mode," Weevil said smugly, "And I'll end it there."

Why was he was content to just sit where he was? It smelled like a trap, but she hated to just sit and wait for him to attack. So, she fused her Fiend Sword and Crow Goblin to form Punished Eagle, setting it in front of one of his face-down cards to draw him into battle. Ameba also moved forward, seemingly ignored by Weevil's other cards. She smiled. Next turn, she would be sure to put down her freshly-drawn Mirror Wall.

Attack, Weevil did, with a large green larva called Petit Moth. Her bird, of course, destroyed it, but was spellbound in the process. Then, he took out Ameba with the Hunter Spider. Inari winced—she'd wanted it a space over and in defense mode. The blow to her life points was harsh.

Grimacing, Inari said, "I put down one face-down card and end my turn."

The Hunter Spider was closing in on her Punished Eagle, but she wasn't going to let Weevil get any closer to her deck leader—he'd pushed his front line far out onto the terrain, keeping her wedged in. For now, she played Red Medicine, so that she wasn't so horribly behind him on life points. Then, she set her Punished Eagle's eyes on Kamakiriman.

Hunter Spider moved in for her Dragon Zombie, but she was careful not to give anything away. Any of his attacks were going to be sorely put down, thanks to her hidden trap card. Without much else to do other than bide her time, she sat down another trap.

"Ha!" Weevil sniggered, the sound grating on her ears. "Too scared to try to fight me head-on, and rightfully so. I'll show you the power of my precious insects!" First, he powered up a monster and laid it face-down. Then, he called out, "Giant Flea, clip her bird's wings!"

"Your pest activated my trap card!" Inari announced with a sigh of relief. "Tears of a Mermaid! It not only spellbinds your monster for a turn, but it also lowers its attack points by six hundred!" With a slight smile, she added, "You can't get rid of my eagle that easily."

Weevil glowered and shouted, "Hunter Spider, attack her face-down card!"

The big, hairy yellow spider flipped over the card containing the Dragon Zombie, and was summarily destroyed, the purple beast breathing its rotted breath all over its opponent.

Pulling a falsely sympathetic face, Inari said, "Yeah, sorry, his halitosis is a little strong."

"Cut the trash talk," he snapped, "You're too busy losing this duel." He pulled a card from his hand and slapped it down. "I activate the ritual Javelin Beetle Pact, sacrificing three of my insects to summon a new, stronger monster that I'll keep face-down."

The card created a vortex, the wind whipping all around, and sucked Weevil's three remaining bugs into its face. With a flash of light, everything stopped, and nothing of his was left except for a single, face-down card. Luckily, thanks to both Mirror Wall and her newly-laid trap, she felt confident that there was nothing to fear from… whatever it was. Punished Eagle moved forward, and Inari was content to keep everything else where it was.

"Now, behold my ultimate warrior! Javelin Beetle, attack her face-down card!"

A massive, blue Hercules beetle rose out of the map, standing on two legs and gripping a large, two-handed weapon with four prongs that were designed to look like beetle legs. It started to move in on Dragon Zombie, but Inari flipped over a trap card.

"You activated my trap card! Mesmeric Control" A large, disembodied hand holding a circular pendant on a chain appeared in front of the Javelin Beetle, and started swinging. "It spellbinds your Beetle for one turn and lowers its attack points by eight hundred!" She would have gone ahead and attacked it, but her dragon took a severe point reduction off of the wasteland, so she decided to wait. Instead, she put down the trap Magic Jammer. "Punished Eagle, attack that face-down card!"

Unfortunately, the second Hunter Spider had the same number of attack points, and the two creatures destroyed each other. Flinching, she hoped that Weevil would go ahead and attack her Dragon Zombie again, as she didn't have any monsters in her hand that could be strong enough to take him head-on.

But that didn't happen. "I'll just move these around and end my turn."

She tossed out Fairywitch and Neck Hunter, setting down Magical Ghost as a temporary defense. She thought, _'Come on, Weevil, bring it on. Just try to attack Dragon Zombie.'_

But the Javelin Beetle moved, instead setting its sights on Mirror Wall. With a sinking feeling, Inari realized that she hadn't defended it—she hadn't thought she would need to. The thing about traps and spells was that many of them would be simply destroyed if a monster—any monster—moved to attack it, silently and without any fuss. Mirror Wall was no different. As a last-ditch effort, she moved Magical Ghost, a green zombie dressed like a ragged witch, over, figuring that she could take the hit to her life-points and that the Beetle would lose attack points, anyway. She also set down Monster Eye, setting it in defense mode and flipping it up.

"Show me your face-down!" she demanded.

It was nothing but a low-leveled insect called Nightmare Scorpion, and she didn't worry about it. The way it tried to threateningly shake its four stinger-ended tails was almost humorous. She even giggled.

"I wouldn't think it's so funny, if I were you," Weevil harsh, piercing voice snapped. "Javelin Beetle, destroy that face-down card!"

"You've activated my _other_ trap," she informed, letting out a short sigh of relief. She smiled when she heard a loud cheer go up from where her friends were gathered. Joey had clearly won. "Mirror Wall!" A large, crystalline wall quickly rose in front of Magical Ghost, rebuking the Javelin Beetle's attack. "It halves your monster's attack points."

"That doesn't stop me from destroying your little zombie!" He was right. The instant the trap's image vanished from Magical Ghost's square, the beetle attacked it again and terminated it. "Now, I think I'll attack your cluster of eyeballs, there. Gokibore, do the honors!" It was a very fat, black beetle, and Inari would have actually thought it was cute if it wasn't one of Weevil's cards.

"That's it," she grumbled, watching her monster burst into nothing. "Dragon Zombie, get rid of it." Even though it lost the wasteland's attack bonus, it squashed Gokibore with ease.

"'Atta girl, kid."

"Mai!" Inari turned her head, surprised to see her watching the duel.

"I'd been watching Joey smash that Mako guy," she explained with a smile. "Yugi said you'd been challenged by _this_ worm, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch you crush him."

"Where are the others?"

"Still chatting. I'm guessing they don't think you need the moral support." Shrugging and raising an eyebrow, she smirked in Weevil's direction. "By the looks of your opponent, I'm guessing they're probably right."

Inari snickered, and when her eyes landed on the life point counters, and she felt her heart skip a beat. She was so close to winning, she could taste it, but she would have a hard time if Javelin Beetle destroyed Mirror Wall. So, she swapped out Magical Neutralizing Force Field for the trap Invisible Wire, hoping it would activate and destroy Weevil's monster.

"Now, let's see what you've been hiding under there," Weevil chuckled. "Go, my Beetle!"

"I play another trap card! Invisible Wire cuts your monster to ribbons!"

"Don't you have any other strategies?!" Weevil screeched. "Repetition is boring!"

"If it isn't broken, there's no point in fixing it," she retorted smugly. Happily, she pulled the last card she'd drawn out of her hand and sent it out to onto the field. "I play the spell card Yami, changing half of the forest terrain into darkness!"

"You sacrificed your dragon's point boost just to take mine away?" Weevil asked, incredulous. "Why?"

"Dragon Zombie gets a boost from the darkness, too," she reminded.

He put all of his monsters in defense mode, anticipating an attack.

With a smirk, she called out, "Getting nervous, Weevil? I would be, too."

"Of course not." He slipped a card over into Inari's new terrain, clearly trying to egg her on.

Instead of taking the bait, she moved her dragon over without attacking. She also put down the trap card Shadow of Eyes. So many traps, so little time. Immediately, as Weevil ended his next turn, it started switching cards into attack mode.

"What?" he exclaimed, flabbergasted, "But why?!"

"Shadow of Eyes doesn't let you end your turn with anything in defense mode," she explained. "So your life points are wide open to my attacks."

Her Dragon Zombie was moving closer to Nightmare Scorpion, and she played another spell. "Go, Final Flame!" Weevil only had 100 life points left. She smiled.

Finally, on her next turn, she drew Aqua Dragon, and set it down. But, just as she moved it forward…

"You've activated one of my traps!" Weevil crowed. "Block Attack! It negates your attack entirely." Her dragon, while it remained face-down, stepped back into its original square.

Wanting to make the ending more interesting, Inari made her Dragon Zombie go ahead and attack the face-down card next to it, rather than the Nightmare Scorpion.

But it ended up activating yet another trap—Negate Attack, which effectively did the same thing as Block Attack. Frustrated, Inari ended her turn. Weevil didn't do much for his next turn, but he did put a face-down card in front of Aqua Dragon.

Just in case he was trying to come after her with a powered-up monster—or if he spellbound one of hers, she set down the spell Cursebreaker.

"Alright, Dragon Zombie, let's try this one more time," she ordered, and it attacked the same face-down card from the last time. Kumootoko was flipped up, and how perfect it was.

Weevil shrieked, "No!"

" _Yes_!" hissed Inari. The Dragon Zombie loomed over the orange, spider-like bug, breathing its noxious haze into its face, and she won the duel. "Whoo!" She swiped her coins and cards from her side of the field, and marched over to Weevil. "Cough them up, you little spider."

His eyes were glowering daggers at her, and he even hesitated before giving her his two coins. As a last-ditch effort towards humiliation, he flung the coins in her face, and they fell to the floor. "If I'd been able to pull off my Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, you would've been devastated. Your monsters are pathetic. You use too many traps for someone who's supposed to be a _real_ Duelist."

She wouldn't bend down to pick up the coins. Not in front of him. "It's legal and it seems to work, doesn't it?"

"Ah, don't listen to him," said Mai, clapping a hand on Inari's shoulder. "He's a sore loser and always has been."

"You're never going to win this tournament if you don't stop _hiding_ behind your traps," he spat before turning sharply on the ball of his foot and leaving. A pair of eagle-eyed security guards, dressed in black suits with matching sun glasses stated to approach him, but he brushed them off. "I can see myself out, thank you."

A chill went up her spine when he said "hiding," like it had meant more than either of them thought. But she warmed up again when she saw the rest of her friends rushing over, faces bright. She smiled, letting herself be pulled into a massive group-hug. She had nothing to be hiding from.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, there, everyone! I'm sorry I didn't get this chapter out sooner. This last week, I was working on a new fanfiction that should be getting posted sometime _next_ week, and it took a lot of cognitive resources out of me. It's funny, I was actually getting angry with my stories just for being there... eheh.

Anyway, I keep writing Inari's duels and forgetting about everyone else- please review or shoot me a message if you would like to see the others dueling, or if you want me to cut to the chase and just focus on Inari and maybe Atem.

As always, I LOVE getting reviews and feedback on my fics, please continue to leave them! Thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate it!

Lots of love, WolfMoonSinger


	8. He Didn't Start the Fire-- Technically

Yugi was walking back from the bathroom, on his way to watch Duke and Joey duel—the gang had decided that it would be their last duel of the day. They were all tired and ready to relax. It was just as he was about to round the corner when he heard the low, conspiratorial voice in the hallway. His first instinct was to think, ' _No, no, we're here to have fun. Not get involved in any more world-domination plots.'_ But then he heard the voice say the name "Inari?" Atem made him listen in.

The person was remarkably nondescript, with their back turned to Yugi and a hoodie thrown over their head. It sounded as if they were on the phone, but it must have been on speaker because it wasn't being held to their ear. The person they were talking to was far too muffled to make out anything.

"Are you sure that's her name?" the person asked. "….. The only one here sure doesn't _act_ like it….. yes…. Yes, ma'am. Yes, I remember the new job."

Then, the person on the other end of the line spoke louder, a firm, female voice that was like silk. "….. _circumstances have changed….. afford…. Might not be willing…. whatever it takes…..Do you understand?_ _ **Find her**_ _."_

The voice cut out, and the person in the hoodie stowed away the phone. Yugi made sure he was hidden around the corner, waiting with his back turned as the figure passed him by. He pretended to putz around with his phone, and he was paid no mind. Inside, though, he was worried. So, someone _was_ looking for Inari, after all. Was it a family member? Or something more sinister? He hated to think about the latter option but, knowing his luck, it was the most likely.

Sighing, he walked back to the group where he was pleased to see that Duke was winning—not that he didn't want Joey to win, either, but Duke wasn't big on playing tournaments. He was usually too busy.

"Sorry, Joey," Duke said with a smirk, "But you just activated _my_ trap card! Royal Decree!" A card with the image of a medieval castle flipped up and sent a shock of static over to Joey's freshly-played Invisible Wire. "As long as I've got this card on the field, any other traps played don't work." His ensnared monster, Neo the Magic Swordsman, struggled in his wire bindings for a second before they snapped.

"Ah, he always gets me with that one," Inari laughed. "Come on, boss, take him down!"

"Hey!" Joey yelled at her, "I'm your friend, too!"

"Sorry, dude," she replied with a helpless shrug, "But you don't sign my paychecks."

"Traitor."

She stuck her tongue out at Joey and leaned in to whisper in Yugi's ear. "Who do you think's going to win?" she asked softly.

"You can't ask me to pick between friends," he said with a smile.

" _Tell her,"_ Atem demanded inside their mind. Yugi cast his gaze around the massive room, but didn't see any sign of the hooded person.

" _No_ ," he replied, " _It's only going to freak her out, and it might be nothing."_

" _You know it's not nothing."_

" _We'll cross that bridge when we get to it,"_ Yugi firmly thought. " _Don't you dare try to say anything the next time you're in control, either."_

Duke drew a card and a huge grin spread across his face. "This duel's _over_ , Wheeler. I play Tremendous Fire!"

It was a spell card, and three magenta-haired nymphs sprung up on the field in a circle. Between them grew a massive bonfire that shot up in a great column, attacking Joey's Flame Swordsman directly. It was a powerful card and took out 1000 points of damage, so Joey was finished.

"What?!" he balked furiously, "What kinda move is that, Dice Boy?!"

"The kind that lets me win. Hand over the rose coin."

Joey shoved it in Duke's hand, pouting. He still had four coins, though, like Duke. Yugi and Inari had started an unspoken competition to see who could get the last rose coin first—both of them had five. He would easily win the last one tomorrow, and Inari was determined to beat him to the punch. Serenity went to her brother to give him a hug.

"Aw, it's okay," she sweetly said, "You'll win the next duel for sure."

"Yeah…" Joey had to agree when it was his little sister, but he still looked irritable.

Stretching, Téa yawned out, "Alright, guys, I'm starving. Let's go get food."

"I vote burgers," Tristan put in immediately.

Inari stuck her tongue out. "I vote hotel sushi bar."

But the boys voted her down, and they went off to the hotel lobby to see if they could find out where the nearest burger joint was. Inari was flicking through a pamphlet about local food places for tourists when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist. She jumped, dropping the pamphlet to grab their wrists, and felt the Millennium Puzzle press against her back. Atem kissed her when she turned her head.

"Apparently, the hotel has a shuttle into the city," he murmured, "And Joey found a place for dinner."

"Excellent." She leaned against him with a sigh, and closed her eyes. "Are you having fun?"

"Yes." He smiled and nuzzled her hair. "So is Yugi. It's nice to play a card game and not have the fate of the world depend on it."

"Okay, for real, you two need to tell me more about Battle City and Duelist Kingdom." She turned around, wide-eyed. "And who lets a _card game_ determine anything that serious?"

He shrugged. "You'd be surprised. It's not _just_ a card game, either. Pegasus created it from the remnants of ancient magic from when I was a king and before. We used monsters trapped in stone to fight our enemies, to keep the peace… like Yugi and I have done for a few years, now."

Her eyes dropped down to the Millennium Puzzle, and she grimaced, shuddering. "Sometimes, I wish I didn't believe in magic…" she muttered. "It's used to hurt others too much. But I guess without it, you wouldn't be here, so it can't be that bad." She looked back up to him and forced a smile, then glanced over his shoulder. "Looks like the shuttle's here. Let's go." She grabbed his hand and tried to pull him along, but he stopped her, squeezing her fingers. He looked concerned, like he was about to say something, but then sighed instead. Frowning, Inari asked, "What it is?"

Atem shook his head. "Nothing. I'll be back later, alright?" Before she could reply, he pulled her close, kissed her forehead, and let Yugi take over once more.

Taken aback, Inari knitted her brow and asked, "What was _that_ about?!" Yugi just gave her a small smile.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it."

She was frustrated, and visibly, but wouldn't push the issue. Once the two of them made up their minds not to tell her something, they usually stuck to it. But there was always a way of ferreting it out, typically through bribing Joey with snacks. Cookies did amazing things, like turn him into a secret-spilling parrot. For now, though, she sat with Téa, listening to the mindless chatter while she leaned against the window. Duke was on the phone, talking to the person minding the game shop, Serenity and Téa were recapping some of the more exciting duels they had seen that day, and Yugi, Tristan, and Joey were gossiping like hens about the restaurant to which they were going—they'd heard of the place before, because it had a sister storefront back in Domino, but they'd never gone. It was a ten minute drive until they hit the city limits.

It was like Domino, but more varied. All sorts of shopping centers, restaurants, coffee shops (Inari knew where _she_ was going tomorrow morning before the dueling got underway), and a museum that was right across the street from their destination. The architecture was entirely post-modern, with geometric cuts and clean, minimalist decorations. The burger place was blocky, but sported columns dotted with engraved cheeseburgers and fries.

"They're trying a little hard, aren't they?" she murmured to Téa, who raised an eyebrow.

Snickering, she replied, "Lay off the poor building, it's supposed to be _fun._ "

"Yeah, whatever."

The second they walked in, a man in a red-and-white uniform popped up and cheerfully sang, "Welcome to McStuffy's Malt Shop, how many are in your party today?"

The servers had to push together a couple of tables to fit the seven of them together, and it was crowded. People kept bumping into their chairs any time they walked around, but it was easy to ignore once the gang started telling their stories. Téa averted her eyes from the ketchup bottle when Joey picked it up to drizzle his fries.

"Having flashbacks?" Yugi asked Téa with a laugh. She blanched.

"Don't remind me. Atem _did_ set fire to the place."

That was Inari's cue to start choking on her food. After a minute of banging on the table and Serenity patting her back, the coughing subsided. Her eyes went between Yugi and Téa. " _What_?!"

They laughed at Inari's stricken face. "I used to work at a place like this back home," Téa quickly explained, "And our school didn't allow after-school jobs, so when Yugi and Joey swung by, I threatened them."

"You literally _drowned_ our food in ketchup," Joey reminded her. "And then some guy held up the place and the Pharaoh got involved."

"... and his solution to the problem was to set everything on _fire_?" Inari asked. She couldn't believe that he'd do something like that. He was so sweet and gentle with her.

Defensively, Yugi added, "It wasn't _everything._ Just the guy with the gun! And Atem didn't start the fire, technically, the lighter was the convict's and the vodka…" Yugi scratched the back of his head, chuckling nervously when he saw that Inari pulled a disturbed face. "He was a little… _wild_ back when I'd first solved the Puzzle."

"Clearly."

The conversation subsided while everyone ate, until Joey noticed that Inari was slicing her burger in half, and then into quarters. "Why don't you just eat the damn thing?" he asked.

"Because that isn't ladylike," she coolly replied.

He snorted. "Ladylike…"

"Are you saying I'm not a lady?" She was staring him down with dangerous eyes, but he was too used to the death-glare by now.

"That's right, _princess_."

"Don't call me that."

She was glad when the subject was changed to Tristan using dinner to hit on Serenity. He'd been feeding her off his plate and reaching an arm around her shoulders while Joey was distracted, but Tristan didn't pull away fast enough. The two of them bickered all the way out the door and back onto the shuttle, going so far as to sit far apart from each other. So Duke was saddled with Tristan, and Téa with Serenity. Yugi slid next to Inari, and Joey was alone.

Yugi looked around and, after an awkward pause, said, "So… how's it going?" It was weird sometimes, talking to her and knowing she preferred to have someone else in his body.

"Oh, fine… Yugi?" she asked, blushing. "Can I talk to Atem for a little bit?"

"Of course…" Because _Yugi_ never wanted to just chat with her. Honestly, though, he was fine with it. The Puzzle glowed, and Atem ran a hand through his yellow bangs, pulling some of them up.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"… vodka and a _lighter_?" Inari hissed incredulously. He flushed and looked away.

"He had Téa at gunpoint," Atem said firmly. "And he was threatening Yugi."

"So _fire_ —"

"I was a lot different back then," he pointed out, "But Yugi and our friends taught me kindness. Compassion. I probably wouldn't do that again unless I really had to."

"Uh-huh. Any other murders I should be aware of?"

"Can we talk about something else?" He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Please?"

"Fine…" She crossed her arms over her chest, and a smirk slowly spread its way over her face. "So I'm _not your girlfriend_ —?"

He rolled his eyes and grabbed her chin, pulling her into a kiss. "You know you are," he muttered, exasperated. "Inari Winters, I'm a little in love with you."

His words sent a cold, terrified shiver down her spine, but she still gave him a smile. "And I with you, Pharaoh Atem."

She made plans to go shopping with Téa the next day, and the lot of them went back to their rooms. Inari didn't realize how tired she was until she collapsed onto the bed, wearing a t-shirt and underwear, falling asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

 _She was running down a long, crystalline hallway, hiking her white dress up to her thighs to keep from tripping over it. Hair fanned out behind her over the green cloak that fluttered like fur-trimmed wings, and she couldn't hear the sound of her heels coming down on the floor over her heartbeat in her ears. Her bag thumped rhythmically against her thigh from under her clothing. The great, shining portal was gaping open wildly in front of her. She was so close._

" _Inari!"_

 _She turned at the sound of her name, and time slowed until it almost stood still. Her eyes widened, and she started screaming, "No!" She even lunged back, thrusting out her arm to send a spire of emerald-colored sparks shooting out. Her foot slipped out from under her, sending her flying backwards into the portal with her hands outstretched. Time moved so slowly._

 _Atem's eyes were wide with pain, the light of life in them flickering out before her like a candle. She caught sight of an arrow head pushing through his breast, a spatter of blood flying across her clothes. His fingers brushed hers, and his skin was already ice-like in death. Though she grasped for him, she missed, and he fell short of the portal while she plummeted down into it._

 _Everything went white. Someone was screaming. Was it her?_

Inari awoke with a start, sitting bolt-upright in her hotel bed with her hands clenching into fists. One of them groped around next to her, clutching tightly to Atem's arm when she found it. She gave a soft cry of relief, lying back down and wrapping her arms tightly about him, face buried in his back. Awoken, he groggily lifted his head and looked over his shoulder, then rolled over to hold her close. He was asleep again in seconds. Pulled under his chin, Inari silently held fast to the ring she wore on the chain around her neck, rolling it between her fingers until the leaves imprinted themselves into her skin.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey there, everyone! I am SO SORRY for the lack of updates! Life has been really crazy for the last week or so, and I haven't had time to write. This week, we still won't be back on a normal schedule, but I'll still get some updates out. Next week, however, it's back to your regularly scheduled programming!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much for your patience, and thank you for reading! Until next time! Lots of love, WolfMoonSinger


	9. The Thief in the Maze

Bright and early the next morning, after Inari and Serenity had made a coffee-run for the others (they were the only two awake enough for it), the gang arrived back in the convention halls to see that only about half of the contestants were left from yesterday. People were already on the arenas, eager to collect their rose coins and move on. One arena actually had a small crowd around it, and Inari could see a familiar, blonde head. Sipping her go-cup of coffee, she led the group over to where Mai was dueling. It was already almost over, and Mai had her Pet Dragon out on the field, facing a monster-less opponent's Deck Leader, a Dark Witch, directly.

"Get 'er, Mai!" Joey yelled. "Finish it!"

Mai looked down, surprised, but she smiled. "What does it look like I'm doing, Joey? Alright, my Dragon, you heard him. Attack!"

The feathered monster let out a high roar that was tinged with the cry of an eagle, and blew the witch away with its fiery breath. Mai and her friends let out a cheer, the former unable to help but perform a small victory dance. She was gracious enough to recompose herself, though, when she and her opponent took to the floor.

"Here you go," the opponent, a young, bespectacled woman said, "My last rose coin."

"Making it my sixth." Mai snapped it into her compact and held out her hand. "That was a good duel, though, kid."

"Thank you." The girl shook it with an apologetic, nervous smile. "Y'know, I'm just glad I got to duel you. That was fun. I remember watching your matches in Battle City."

"Well, next time I'm in your neck of the woods, I'll look you up for another game," Mai offered playfully. Once the two said goodbye, she went to Yugi and the gang.

"Wow, Mai!" Yugi was grinning. "Looks like you get to go to the semifinals!"

"Of course, what made you think I wouldn't?" Mai scoffed, albeit with a little smile of her own. "You'd all better hurry up, though, and get to winning. Otherwise the other spots are going to be taken."

"Ah, don't worry," he replied, "We'll manage. Inari and I are only one coin away, ourselves."

The violet eyes landed on Inari. "I'm impressed. You're an unknown duelist and you've already made it this far. It's not unheard of, but it's not expected for your first tournament."

"Thanks."

The crowd who'd been watching Mai was dispersing, pressing in on the gang. One of them bumped into Inari, who lost her balance and fell directly into Tristan with a squeal, dropping her purse and compact in the process.

"Hey, buddy!" Tristan reprimanded, propping her back up. "Watch where you're going!"

"So sorry." Inari turned to see a man, probably in his mid-thirties, of average build with dark eyes and hair, a heavy leather jacket about him, holding her things out to her with a smile. He chuckled, embarrassed, as the case snapped closed in his hand, which was covered in a tight-fitting, leather glove. "I need to learn to watch where I put my big feet."

"It's nothing," she dismissed, slinging the purse over her shoulder. "I'm just as clumsy, I understand." He left, and Inari opened up the compact, just to make sure everything was still in there. She groaned. "Great."

"What's up?" Téa asked, watching her start to scan the floor.

"One of my coins is missing." They all looked over her shoulder, and there was a blank slot where one of her original coins had once sat.

"How?" Yugi asked, concerned.

Inari crouched down, searching the area where it had landed on the ground. "The case must have opened up when I dropped it," she put in, sounding exasperated. "It's got to be around here, somewhere…"

All of them looked with her, and it didn't turn up. She felt the panic starting to rise inside, her breath catching in her throat. How in the world did she lose it? It was shiny and gold, not exactly something that blended in with the floor. Joey and Tristan straightened up, exchanging a suspicious glance.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Joey asked. Tristan nodded, and they both ran off.

"Where are _you two_ going?" Yugi called after them.

"To find that guy!"

Téa murmured, "You don't think…"

"I wouldn't put it past anyone here," Mai answered, crossing her arms over her chest.

Inari was the first to sprint after the boys, followed closely by the others, but she didn't care. She was only one coin away from placing in the semifinals. Just one. And that's all she could focus on.

They watched as the man pulled up the hood on his jacket and left the convention hall, heading out towards the greater hotel. He rooted around for something in his pocket, and had what looked like a small hand mirror in his grasp, when Joey and Tristan grabbed him.

"Hey!" he grunted indignantly, "What's the big-?"

"Can it," Tristan growled, and they dragged him off into the hall that led to the bathrooms, where Yugi had first overheard him. Inari and the others caught up just as the guys had pinned him up against a wall. "We know you took something from her, so give it back!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just give back my coin," Inari asked. While Tristan and Joey had the guy surrounded, standing on either side of him, she filled in the window they made. She forced him to make eye-contact. "I haven't seen you duel at all, even though there's a deck on your belt. If you're not competing, then why are you here?"

"I like spectacting— _ack_!" Joey whacked him on the head.

"Cough up the coin," he snapped, "Or we'll make ya."

"I can't do that!" the man burst out. "I need it!"

"For _what_?!"

He sighed and hung his head, and Tristand and Joey backed off a little. "I can't tell you that. I can give it back to you tomorrow, but not before."

"But I need it _today_!" Inari cried in desperation. "If I don't have six—"

"I'll let you duel me for it, if it'll get you off my back," he cut in. Immediately, he looked frustrated with himself and groaned softly, "She's gonna kill me…"

"Who's ' _she?_ '" Yugi asked, but Inari interrupted him with, "I'll do it. I win, I get my coin back."

"And I keep it if you don't." The man held out his hand tentatively, and Inari shook it.

"Are you sure?" Yugi asked uncertainly.

Tristan added, "We could still beat 'im up for it."

"That's _my_ coin and I worked hard to win it," she replied harshly, still glowering at her new opponent. "I'll be damned if I let a petty thief take it."

They took him to the emptiest hall, where Tristan and Joey escorted him to the closest arena and forced him to get in. As the gate closed behind her on Inari's side, she called out, "What's your name?"

He set his mouth in a frown, grudgingly shuffling his deck of cards. "Scott. Scott Seward."

"Well, _Scott_ ," Inari started, spitting out his name like she couldn't even fathom it was a name, "Let's make this quick. I choose the Illusory Gentleman as my deck leader!"

"Er…" Scott quickly flicked through his cards and set one down. "Monster Tamer." A heavily-tanned man-monster, dress head-to-toe in loose, red clothes cracked a whip, baring his teeth menacingly at Inari's side of the field.

The terrain was ridiculous. Every other row was almost entirely filled with labyrinth spaces, with two spaces on either side that were relatively passable. Three were Crush spaces. The rest of the map was a mix of meadow, wasteland, darkness, water, and normal squares. In short, if she wanted to reach his deck leader for a direct attack, Inari's monsters would have to weave in and out of the rows, taking up precious attacking time.

Her first hand was nothing but traps and spells, so she decided to make use of them. "I play Hinotama!" she declared, dealing him a meager amount of damage with the rain of fireballs. Then she made the Illusory Gentleman move over. The closer he was to the free, moveable edges for summoning, the better.

Scott scanned the map, then his hand, and chose to simply put down one card. But he moved it, too, in the same direction that Inari's deck leader had gone. He was on the attack.

Inari's next card turned out to be Launcher Spider. She'd wanted to hit him with Final Flame, but decided a monster would be better use of her time. So, after moving her deck leader again, she placed it on the dark square that skirted around the edge of the labyrinth.

"They're too quiet," Duke said darkly, "I don't like it."

"They're both focused," agreed Yugi, nodding. "And I don't think Inari wants to waste time with words."

Scott played another card, and moved everything on his side of the field around. He was going in for a pincer movement.

Catching his move, Inari let Launcher Spider creep along the dark spaces before she set down and flipped over another spell card. "I play Final Flame!" she declared. Monster Tamer went up in flames for a brief moment.

"If that's the only way you know how to deal damage," Scott taunted, "Then kiss your rose coin goodbye for the next twenty four hours."

"You'll see what I can do soon enough," she shot back.

Scott put down another card, and now had three cards on the field. Both of them noticed that she was completely undefended from her other side. Quickly, she combined Black Pendant with the Illusionist Faceless Mage and set it down on her other side. It wasn't the most powerful, but it was enough to make her feel more secure. Now, there was a crush space blocking Launcher Spider's path to the Monster Tamer, so she moved him into the wasteland, pleased that her monster received a terrain boost.

Scott continued his play of putting more and more cards out on the field, closing in enough to make her nervous. There were only two, maybe three spaces between their closest cards. She didn't have anything in her hand that she could play, yet, except for the spell card Black Hole. It could be useful, but she didn't want to sacrifice her Spider so soon. So, she passed.

He didn't seem to want to move his monster past the Crush space, but he had no qualms with taking the others around the left side. Then, he smirked to himself. "Ready for a taste of your own medicine?" he asked. "I play the spell Dokazi!" Now, it was Inari's turn to be attacked with a blast of fire, taking out 500 life points.

She played Swordstalker face-down, then immediately wished that she hadn't put him on the field at all seeing as how she had lost no monsters, yet. That was the fiend's special ability: his attack went up one hundred points for every monster in her graveyard. She moved Launcher Spider and the Illusionist Faceless Mage to meet the face-down card heading towards them. Scott seemed satisfied with the force he'd lain down, so he merely continued to move his cards.

"Why are you so set on keeping that coin?" she asked him, breaking the silence once more.

"Trust me, it's not because I'm a huge fan." Scott wouldn't look her in the eye, he only kept his gaze firmly on his hand. "It's my job, kid, sorry to tell you."

Looking confused, Inari added, "What job involves stealing from people?"

"If I told you that, I'd have to kill you. And hand over the down payment from my current client." He glanced at the field. "It's your move, little girl."

"That's even more annoying than 'princess,'" she muttered. Inari put down Magic Jammer, just in case he had a spell card lurking about somewhere. Now he had five cards out on the field, all face down. She set down Shadow of Eyes on her next turn with bated breath, waiting to clash with Scott when it eventually came.

"… and I set this card into Defense Mode."

"Not so fast!" she called, startling him, "You've activated the trap Shadow of Eyes! With this card on the field, you can't put any cards into defense mode!"

"You get really excited about this game, don't you?" he asked flatly.

Her chance to meet him face-to-face came, and she smiled. "Launcher Spider!" she commanded, "Attack his face-down card!" Her mechanical beast revealed a creature named Skull Stalker, a purple-and-red fiend that looked like a demonic, anthropomorphized scorpion. It wasn't particularly strong, so her Spider promptly decimated it.

"You've triggered my warrior's special ability," Scott said smugly. "Whenever Skull Stalker is defeated in battle, the opposing monster's attack points get reduced by three hundred."

 _Damn_. Launcher Spider was the most powerful monster she had on the field. Now, that spot belonged to Swordstalker, who wasn't entirely that powerful at the moment. She played Ameba, hoping to use it to get rid of the crush spaces. Scott, entirely unaffected by the loss of his monster, played another card, letting it crawl down the line closest to the Illusory Gentleman. On her next turn, Inari slapped down her Dragon Zombie and moved Swordstalker to give Ameba room to work. Scott tried to play a card called Goblin's Secret Remedy, which would have restored some of his life points, but her Magic Jammer cancelled it out. Ameba went to the Crush space. Now, the problem was that she had to figure out how to get it destroyed and the ability triggered without losing too many life points. To end things, she played Tears of the Mermaid.

Again, he did nothing but sit on his cards, so she tried to take the fight to Scott. A weakened Launcher Spider moved inward, on the other side of the Crush space, towards Scott's monsters. Ameba was put into defense mode, and she drew a spell card that was useless to her right now—Horn of the Unicorn.

Still, Scott waited. He wasn't going to let her draw him into an attack, and she didn't want to wait to see if he ever would. So, she prayed to God that this thing looming in front of Ameba wasn't _too_ terribly powerful. Hesitating for the briefest second, she called, "Ameba, attack."

Jirai Gumo. A large, fat spider with 2200 attack points, compared to her 300 point water blob, rose from its card and hissed venomously. It did what she wanted, and got rid of the Crush space, but then she also lost almost two thousand life points. She was down to 1600, and had to be careful. Maybe, just maybe, if she could get it to activate Tears of the Mermaid…

"Stop taking such risky moves!" Yugi said desperately under his breath. "This isn't going to end well."

Her new plan worked. Jirai Gumo tried to attack her face-down card, and was instead weakened severely by her trap card. Though she looked triumphant, when she went to attack Jirai Gumo with her Dragon Zombie, she was dismayed to realize that the sea terrain sliced off part of her zombie's attack points, too. They were evenly matched, and destroyed each other. The best thing, at least, was that she hadn't lost any points from it.

It went back to the "play a card, move a card, don't do anything else" formula from before for a while, but then Scott attacked her with a new monster: Suijin. The cloaked beast was a water monster, taking strength from the terrain she had put down.

"Attack her face-down monster!" Scott called out. Suijin made quick work of destroying the Ancient Elf that she'd played earlier.

There was nothing she could do at this point but play defense to keep it at bay—keeping a fresh monster between the Illusory Gentleman and Suijin. Even Aqua Dragon took on that role. Her favorite creature's special ability would do nothing for her, now. Even after she'd played the terrain-changer, Yami, Suijin's attack points were very high. He hammered her with another spell, one she didn't even remember, taking her life points down to 1150. So, she finally relented and played Dark Hole, destroying everything on the field in one fell swoop.

"Now we both have to start over," she murmured.

Inari played Invisible Wire, next, and destroyed his first monster. He fell into his old pattern of putting down cards, going in for a direct attack on either side, especially since she had rid one column of its crush space. Next, she played Crow Goblin, sending it out to defend her. After, she played Red Medicine to bolster her life points, though she still trailed behind Scott—not by much, after her spell card. Crow Goblin was drawing closer to his first target. She drew Neck Hunter, and immediately set him down.

Scott looked down at his hand. "I play the card Labyrinth Wall," he said, setting it down. Suddenly, one of the squares close to him shuddered, and a twisted, blocky brick wall rose from it.

It blocked Inari off entirely from reaching him on that end of the field, meaning that she'd have to send her monsters all the way around to the other side. What worried her most was the card he just played and moved—it was in a labyrinth space. No question, it must be a monster that could move freely about through them, and it meant trouble. She set to moving monsters along each row between the walled squares, ready to defend her deck master if needed.

After setting down another Magic Jammer card, she called, "Crow Goblin, attack his beast within the wall!"

"Big mistake."

" _Oh my God!"_ Inari regretted everything instantly.

The Labyrinth Tank, a monstrously huge, blue machine with several large, red drill bits protruding from its face, had more than a thousand attack points than Crow Goblin and ran it in to the ground. She watched, helpless and horrified, as it proceeded to tear through the last row of labyrinth to reach her Illusory Gentleman. She only had six hundred life points left, and none of her monsters were even close to facing off with it. There was no question.

Her deck leader, speared through the chest by the Labyrinth Tank's drill, sank to his knees and slumped over, flickering out as the holograms vanished and the arena announced, " _Winner, Scott Seward._ "

"Sorry, kid," he said, his tone business-like as he stepped off the arena, "But a deal's a deal. I keep your coin until I'm done with it." He wouldn't even look at her.

Infuriated, she ran to him and grabbed him by the back of his jacket. "Why?" she asked. "Just tell me why."

He turned, looking down on her with mixed emotions. Was that pity in his eyes? "I can't," he replied, gently prying her hand off of him. "Client confidentiality."

Inari shouted, " _Asshole_!" as he darted away, carrying one of her rose coins with him. Yugi squeezed her shoulder when she returned to the group.

"I'm sorry," he murmured sadly. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach, and he could feel Atem's anger. If they would have told her about what they'd overheard yesterday… the guilt was hard to swallow down.

Inari sighed, her hands clenching and relaxing before diving into her pocket for gum. "It's not your fault," she finally said. She forced a smile. "Besides, everyone must lose sometime, right? There's nothing left to do but find someone new to duel."

"There ya go." Joey was suddenly next to her, looking fired up. "Just wait, you're gonna mop the floor with your next opponent!"

She nodded, determined. "And then I'll get into the semifinals with Mai." Laughing, she added, "Are you offering to be my next victim, Mr. Wheeler?"

"Ah, no. That's okay."

They all laughed, and Inari felt her heart grow lighter. Still, something wouldn't stop nagging at her in the back of her mind: what did that man need with her coin? Her insides twisted. Who was his client?

In the hotel lobby, Scott Seward casually made his way back to his room, once in a while glancing over his shoulder to make sure none of those kids were following him. That had been a real pain in the ass, and a waste of time. Luckily, he was being paid by the day for this job. Carefully, he pulled the little gold coin out from his breast pocket, inspecting it. Making it catch the light, his trained eye caught what he was looking for: a smudge of oil secreted by a finger. A fingerprint. Something in his side pocket went hot, and he pulled out the small, silver hand-mirror. A dark face appeared inside, flickering like an old television set.

" _Did you get what you needed?_ " it asked. It was the woman he spoke to yesterday.

"You're very lucky that I'm alone in here." He held the coin up to the mirror to show her. "Don't forget to send me the thing I asked for. I'll need other prints to match it to."

" _You people have such strange ways of investigation…"_ she said, shaking her head. " _It will be waiting for you in your chamber presently._ "

"Thanks." He snorted. "It must be a hell of a lot easier with magic."

She gave him a mysterious smile and merely replied, " _Contact me again when you have concrete evidence for me._ "

"Absolutely."

* * *

 **Author's Note** : Wow, I'm actually very surprised that I got this out on time. Holy crap. Anyway, thank you all for being patient with me and my updates! I hope you enjoy this chapter. It was difficult to get out, truth be told; the flow never clicked the way I wanted it to. I'm actually pretty happy with Scott Seward's character. He was supposed to be someone _entirely_ different, but then Scott came out and worked leaps and bounds better for the purposes of the plot.

Please remember to review and let me know what you think! Constructive criticism is always welcome, and, as with the other duels, I really enjoy it when you tell me what works. I know this one was a bit of a step-backwards.

As always, thank you so much for reading! Lots of love, WolfMoonSinger

 **Edit:** I added a line. It felt weird not having Inari think something was up.


	10. A Battle at Sea

Somehow, Inari's early-morning loss seemed to be a harbinger of _good_ things for the rest of her friends: Joey, Duke, and Yugi all won their next matches by absolute landslides, meaning they were all going to the semifinals, Téa found a ten-dollar bill on the ground, Tristan found someone who traded away a great Duel Monsters card to him, and someone had come floating by with a basket of flowers, sticking one behind Serenity's ear before waltzing along as if they had no idea where they actually were. They even dropped another daisy on the ground, which Atem immediately picked up and clumsily wove into Inari's hair.

She laughed, her fingers touching the strands he'd accidentally pulled from her braids. Her fingers brushed against the petals, and it saddened her that they were a little wilted. "You could have just let me do it," she chided gently, rearranging the mess and pinning it up into a loose bun. But she couldn't stop smiling, especially when he kissed her brow.

"You should be finding your next opponent," he replied, "Let me worry about the sillier things."

She insisted, "It's not silly, it's adorable." Atem's hand was touching her cheek, so she took it in her own and kissed his palm. "Thank you."

His smile widened, though he looked quizzically at the flower in her hair. Did it seem brighter… more alive than it had a second ago? But Atem didn't have the chance to point it out.

"Did I hear that someone needs a new dueling opponent?" Mako was approaching, a big grin on his face. The gang waved at him.

"Oh, yes," Inari replied. "I'm only two coins away from making the semifinals, so…"

"Excellent! So am I!" Mako pulled out his coin case and flipped it open with one hand. "I hear you like to duel with ocean creatures," he continued, his eyes hardening with determination. "I would like to see for myself. I have yet to face a duelist who excels with them as I do."

She laughed nervously, modestly waving him off. "I mean, it's not my _entire_ deck, but yes, I often favor them." Mako suddenly clasped her hands in his.

"Then let's duel! We will both put two coins up, so that whoever wins gets to move ahead to the next stage of the tournament."

"… Alright." Her eyes were wide and blinking, unaccustomed to being accosted in such a way. Even so, his eagerness was infectious, and she found herself getting antsy.

The two of them headed the group who moved to the nearest available dueling arena. Atem was holding tightly to Inari's hand.

"Don't worry," he whispered in her ear, "You can handle this. You could swim laps around his sea monsters."

"Who's worried?" She sweetly kissed Atem's cheek. "Especially with the best cheerleading squad in the world?" Inari stepped up to her place in the arena, and started setting up her things. "Let's go, Mako. I can't wait to barbecue your fish."

"We'll see about that," he scoffed, "I've watched you play a little before now. I know your tricks." Mako proudly slapped down his deck leader. "I choose the mighty Kairyu-Shin!" he crowed. Inari smiled, enjoying his attitude. A long, writhing, blue sea serpent slithered out from the depths of the sea, spitting menacingly at Inari. It reminded her of her Aqua Dragon. She happily put down her Illusory Gentleman.

"I play the magic card Hinotama!" she started off, watching as a small shower of fireballs rained over Kairyu-Shin. One of her trademark opening moves. Classic.

"Is that all you got?" Mako taunted. "I play this card in defense mode."

Inari watched him, searching for a bluff, but his expression gave away nothing but cockiness. She put down her Rare Fish and moved it forward just to see what he would do. Mako responded by setting down a second card and moving it out to meet her. She scanned her hand. There were a few options, but she could only play one at a time. For now, she placed the Magical Neutralizing Force Field down by her side. She knew better than anyone how much water monsters could power up each other. She left Rare Fish where it was.

"Jellyfish!" Mako called, "Attack!"

It was a gorgeous monster, a floating, fancy jellyfish, and it was also stronger than Rare Fish. She winced, watching her beast get destroyed. Maybe she should have put it in defense mode. She didn't have any good monster options in her hand, so Inari put down Mesmeric control and moved her deck leader out of attacking range.

"You should learn to play a stronger defense!" Mako advised condescendingly, moving his Jellyfish.

"And you should probably recognize an obvious, spellbinding trap when your opponent puts one down. Go, Mesmeric Control!" Her card trapped his monster and weakened it enough for her freshly drawn Fairy of the Fountain to take out. Both Inari and Mako played it safe—he strengthened the defense around his deck leader, and she only let the Fairy of the Fountain move one space ahead, rather than the two she was allowed. "I finish with Red Medicine," Inari stated, regaining all of the life points she had lost, and then some.

"I strengthen this monster," Mako declared, "Switch _these_ to defense mode, and end my turn."

Inari found that she had the opportunity to strengthen her Fairy, but if she wanted to take down Mako's powered-up monsters with her Neutralizing Forcefield, she would lose anything she did now. Instead, she discarded her Three-Legged Zombie and placed her Meteor Dragon down in defense mode. Fairy of the Fountain moved again, and Inari waited anxiously. Still, Mako didn't attack her. In fact, he let his cards give the Fairy of the Fountain a wide berth. She laughed, partly because her nerves were starting to fray, and also because she was realizing how ridiculous this must look to their small audience.

"Do you see how crazy-defensive we're being?" she asked him, cracking up. "We were getting all pumped up for a big, bad, epic fight, and _this_ is what we're doing!"

Mako let out a loud laugh, too. "Are you surprised? We both have fearsome creatures of the deep within our decks. Neither of us want to engage them!"

"True." She smiled, calming, and placed her Fairy in defense mode. Which was a good thing, because the next second, a giant, brown snake-like creature destroyed her watery maiden with a pair of typhoons. Grimacing, she drew two more cards. "Oh, thank God," she whispered to herself. Mirror Wall, and Water Magician. Fabulous. But it would take time to set this stage. "First, I play the spell card Magical Neutralizing Force Field! It powers down any monster that you've enhanced with another card. Then, I'll set this one face-down." Mirror Force. Next turn, she would put out the Water Magician, then Star Boy after that. Then she'd stand a chance against the Roaring Ocean Snake.

That's when her finger slipped and sent her Illusory Gentleman right up to the big, slithering beast. She blanched, turning red at her mistake as she heard the mocking titters around her. " _It's okay_ ," she told herself, " _Even if he attacks, Mirror Wall will cut the damage in half. Then Water Magician can beat the tar out of him."_ So, Water Magician went on the field next to the snake. Briefly, she wondered where he'd try to go.

Of course, he attacked Inari's life points directly. "Mirror Wall, activate!" she called with a sigh of relief. She only took a moderate amount of damage, and was behind by a couple hundred points. Another monster of his went after her Spirit of the Winds, some ugly, dark, blob-fish called Tongyo.

Her first move this turn was to move her deck leader out of the damn way. Then, she attacked a weakened Tongyo with Meteor Dragon, destroying it. "Now," she said, "I play Star Boy in defense mode, face up! His special ability amps up all of my Aqua Monsters' attack points! Which is plenty for _this_ little lady to take out your Ocean Snake! Water Magician, attack!"

Pink hair, blue robe, and massive magical staff, the Water Magician sent a large blast of magic water towards the Roaring Ocean Snake, defeating it easily after a large, one-eyed starfish strengthened her. Inari let out the breath she'd been holding in. Part of her was convinced that it wouldn't work. Shockingly, Mako was giving her a big smile.

"Excellent!" he praised her. "Star Boy is a great card. It's nice to fight someone who knows how to use it."

"Th-thank you…?" She smiled back, puzzled, but grateful. She didn't even see what he'd done with his next turn. Not worried, she set down another monster and flipped it up. "I play Fairy's Gift in defense mode!" she said. "Its special ability gives me eight hundred extra life points." The green fairy with blue butterfly wings showered the Illusory Gentleman with a magical, white, glowing powder. She'd still been ahead, prior to this, but she liked the security. She even moved ahead her Water Magician.

The magician was right in the heart of Mako's defense line up, daring him silently to attack her. Then, she put down Crow Goblin, getting rid of Star Boy in the process now that he'd been rendered useless. Still, he wouldn't, merely shifting his cards around the field again.

"Come _on_ ," she groaned, irritated, "Attack me, damn it!" He gave her an amused smile, throwing her off-guard and making her blush. Inari averted her eyes and slapped down Magic Jammer face-down, grumbling, "Asshole," under her breath, and sent the Water Magician into battle with a defense-mode card. It must have been a spell, because nothing happened.

"Turu-Purun, attack!" Mako called, and a squishy, blue cat-thing holding a trident went after Crow Goblin. The robed monster read from the book it held in its talons and flicked Turu-Purun away as if it were nothing, destroying it. "Fine…" Mako gazed out at the map like a hawk. With a smirk, he said, "I believe that you are familiar with _this_ particular monster, Miss." He flipped over a card, sending it to attack her Water Magician, and Inari's eyes widened as a gigantic, blue dragon with wings and massive teeth reared up and blasted the small humanoid monster with intense, magical water. "Say hello to my _own_ Aqua Dragon!"

Gritting her teeth, Inari yelled back, "And say _goodbye_. Or have you forgotten about Mirror Wall?" Though she'd been shoved down, Water Magician staggered back up and hurled her own watery attack towards the beast. It was gone in a flash, and Mako's life points were down to 225.

Inari wasn't sure that she needed to, but she put down her Water Girl, just in case she needed the backup. Now, she took her Water Magician and attacked another face-down card—this time, one in attack mode. Unfortunately, it was a monster called Akihiron—an ugly, pale-blue, oblong creature with fleshy, membrane-colored wings, a single, giant eye, and a misshapen mouth. Its attack strength was the same as Water Magician's, and they destroyed each other.

"It's time for one last attack!" Mako declared, feeling a new surge of confidence now that he'd destroyed her heavy-hitter. "Bottom Dweller, attack her Meteor Dragon!" A big, green wyrm with a glowing ball on the end of its tail coiled itself up like a cobra, waiting to strike. Then it snapped at the Meteor Dragon, taking it by the throat. The molten monster roared, digging its claws into the Bottom Dweller, and tore it in two.

"You _lose_ , Mako." Inari was breathing hard, trying not to scream out her excitement. A laugh escaped her lips.

" _Winner, Inari Winters."_

"I'm going to the semifinals," she whispered, breaking into a wide smile. This time, she _did_ vault over the side of the arena and immediately pulled Atem into a tight hug, laughing as they were ganged up on by the others. "You're dueling me in the semis," she promised in Atem's ear, her voice low. He laughed and kissed her cheek.

"If it's up to me, then absolutely."

Joey and Tristan were half-strangling her when Mako approached, taking half of his rose coins out of his case and offering them up to Inari. "Here," he said, "They're yours."

With a muffled _snap_! of the coins being put in their slots, Inari gazed down at her complete set, and felt a fresh surge of pride. "Thank you, Mako," she graciously said, looking back at him with a grin. "Oh, what the hell." She suddenly crushed him into a hug, too, unable to contain her happiness. "Thank you so much for the match!"

He awkwardly extracted himself from her arms and took a step back, rubbing his forearm. "You had better go check in with the tournament officials. Make sure that no one muscles you out of your spot."

"Right." She turned to Joey, Duke, and Atem, wearing her most serious of expressions. "You heard him, boys, let's get going." Joey and Duke led the way to the semifinals registration table, the four duelists opening up their coin cases and handing them over to the two tournament officials.

"Excellent," said one, handing Atem back the case. "That makes six. We'll go ahead and have the announcement made to cease the dueling."

"Who's the other one?" Duke asked, "Besides Mai Valentine, I mean."

"Mokuba Kaiba."

"Alright!" Joey exclaimed happily. "This oughta be awesome!"

A few minutes later, they heard the announcement and collective groans from the other contestants. A few were glowering towards the finalists, but more were whispering, already debating who out of the four were going to win. More whispers, more glares when Mai and Mokuba joined their ranks. Pegasus returned to the main hall with the other duelists who'd been scattered around the other rooms, and he took to the microphone hooked up to the speakers.

"Duelists, though all of you have dueled valiantly, we have our six finalists. Tomorrow, we'll hold the semifinals, and the finals the day after that. Before all of that, though, please join us tonight at seven o'clock for a warm reception. Attire is formal, dancing is strongly recommended."

"Oh, God, it's Duel Monsters prom…" Mai murmured in Inari's ear, sounding amused. "Do you at least remember if you know how to dance, kid?"

"Prom…?" This was a word she didn't know, and she flushed with embarrassment when Mai gave her a confused look. "Er… I believe I know how. I'm not sure. I guess we'll find out." She laughed it off, hoping that Mai wouldn't ask any more questions.

"Well, save me a dance," Mai teased. Then, she turned her attention to Joey. "You'll be escorting me, of course. A fine lady like me can't just show up to a fancy event without a date."

Joey blushed, and started stammering like crazy, making everyone laugh. Of course, he eventually agreed.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Sorry, again, for the late update! Next week my university classes start back up, and I've been scrambling to take care of some last-minute details. As such, my updates are probably, unfortunately, going to keep being late, though I'll try my hardest to get them out at a decent time.

Thank you very much for reading, I really appreciate it! I also really appreciate feedback of any kind- constructive criticism is a huge help to me, as is encouragement. Lots of love, WolfMoonSinger


	11. The Pumpkin Spice Saga

"What the hell is 'pumpkin spice,' and why is it on everything?"

Inari and Téa had run out for a few last-minute things (mostly, Téa was appalled that Inari had picked baby-pink lipstick rather than a berry color that matched her shoes), and stopped at a coffee shop for a pick-me-up before they went back to the hotel. It was a popular chain, and they had just put out advertisements for their Fall flavors—particularly the pumpkin. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin biscotti, pumpkin bread, and, of course, the all-famous Pumpkin Spice Latté.

With a smile, the barista started rambling about, "Oh, it's like nutmeg and cinnamon and cloves and magic and—" and Téa grumbled, "Inari, just try the damn drink."

While they waited, Inari leaned against the bar, drumming her fingers against the dark wood idly, sighing as her gaze travelled out the window.

"You okay?" Téa asked, sipping on her latté.

"Yeah," Inari replied, throwing her a brief smile. "Just tired."

"It's been a long day," Téa relented. "But tonight should be fun! Dancing, music, good food—"

"I guess." Grabbing her drink from another barista with another polite smile, Inari critically eyeballed the orange-tinted beverage and sniffed at the dusting of spices on top. "I don't know, I don't like formal functions."

Snorting with laughter at her reaction, Téa teased, "Just drink it, already. But really, what's not to like? Out of everyone I know, I'd have pegged you as the one who'd be into the dances and fancy clothes."

"Yeah, you'd thi…" She trailed off, lips frozen around her straw, and stared down at her drink. Starry-eyed, she slowly turned her head to Téa.

~Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch~

Yugi's phone buzzed in his pocket, and his snorting laughter was quickly turned into a cough. "Oh, dear," he chuckled to himself. Joey, playing with an old yo-yo, glanced over.

"Care to share the joke with the rest of the class?" he asked.

"Téa's created a monster."

"Wha…?"

Yugi was trying so hard not to completely lose it and dissolve into hysterics, but he failed miserably when Atem murmured in his mind, _"Yugi, I don't understand. What is 'pumpkin spice?'"_

Because Inari's text had come in saying: _"A- Sorry, dear, but pumpkin spice is the new love of my life."_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, everyone. Uh... take this snippet with a grain of salt. There's a story and two pages of my sketchbook filled with this silliness, and it's just... It started as a joke because I had my first pumpkin spice latte in over a year last week, and I thought "Huh, I wonder what would happen if..." So, among other tidbits of random info about Inari that you all _don't_ (and probably won't) know, the Pumpkin Spice Latte is now her favorite drink.

I'd post links to the art to share it with you, because it got taken way too far and she gets _murderous_ over the stuff, but there are some big spoilers involved, so I can't.

Anyway, I'm sorry about the failure to update. Life has been crazy, and, to be quite honest, I lost a lot of the will to keep this going. I've been getting a lot of flak over Frozen Memories and my other stories, even ones I don't publish, from someone close to me, and it's stupid, but it really takes it out of you.

So, I'd really like to ask anyone reading this to please, _please_ support your friends who like to write. If they ask you to read something, it's probably because they're proud of their work and want to share it with you. And that's a hard, personal thing to do. So just do it. And yeah, constructive criticism never hurt anyone, but also don't be terrible. It's _constructive_ criticism, not _destructive_.

Thank you very much for reading. I think I'm going to try to write this next chapter this week. As always, lots of love, readers! ~WolfMoonSinger


	12. Dancing Through Life

Yugi, decked out in an old, but relatively well-maintained tux loaned to him by his grandfather (of course, he thought to himself with mild exasperation, it was the one with the patched bullet hole in the back of the shoulder), was fussing with the buttons on his cuffs while Joey and Tristan attempted to figure out how to tie a bowtie. Duke was laughing and giving them terrible instructions, probably on purpose.

"It's still not straight—"

"That's great, Duke," Tristan snapped finally, "Especially coming from the guy wearing a regular tie! So guess how much I actually care!"

With another chuckle, Duke leaned back comfortably in his black and red pinstripes. Yugi admonished, "Aw, lay off, Duke. We don't have time to be here all night."

"Why, what time is it-?" Joey forcibly grabbed Tristan by the arm and yanked his wristwatch over.

"Agh! Mai's gonna kill me! I'm supposed to be meeting her right now—"

Tristan raised an eyebrow and made a motion and sound that suggested a cracking whip, but Yugi retorted with a cough that sounded suspiciously like, " _Miho_."

Joey took one last look in the mirror (" _Nyeh,_ it's fine—") before fleeing out the door. Yugi got up from the bed with a smile, watching after him while slowly shaking his head. "I guess that's our cue to get going, isn't it?"

"Yeah, sure." Duke got up and stretched, glancing in the mirror so that he could touch-up his debonairly-disheveled-on-purpose hair. "I guess it wouldn't do if two of the finalists skipped out on their own party."

"Inari said she's mostly going for the food," Yugi snorted.

As they were leaving, Tristan, probably as revenge for the "Miho" comment, teased Yugi, "So, how's it feel to be taking _two_ girls?"

Flushing, he grumbled, " _I'm_ not!" Really, he wished his friends would stop lumping him together with Atem. Even though they technically were "lumped" into the same body.

 _~The Girls~_

Téa had demanded that all of the girls used the same room to prepare, though Mai respectfully declined. That didn't stop Inari from being the victim of her two friends pouncing upon her mane and arranging it themselves.

"How did you even _get_ it this long?" Téa asked.

"Gee, Téa, I don't know," Inari replied flatly with a laugh. Téa flushed, embarrassed when she realized what she'd said. "Agh, I wish I had your hair, though. It looks so easy to manage."

"I can see why, if you're comparing it to this every day." Serenity, who was surprisingly adept at hair styling, had already thrown hers into a sophisticated twist close to her skull. Now, her nimble fingers were combing through the thick curls, weaving a dozen tiny plaits throughout them. "Téa, where's the headband?"

"On the hanger with the dress," Inari answered, instead. She sighed, contentedly. She didn't think she could sit so still for so long. Though, because she'd thought of it, she started to fidget. "Can I at least finish up my makeup?" she asked. Getting the okay, she reached for her makeup bag.

In minutes, her wild mane had gone from a simple plait to a set of rolls that screamed "1800s" curled above the rest of her hair, which hung loose and combed out. The braids made a complex chain around her head like strung sugar on a wedding cake. While they threatened to touch her shoulders, everything was forced together by the headpiece, two strings of white pearls accented with a gold-and-crystal pendant over a pink ostrich feather on the side. It was very lovely, she thought to herself, though for some reason she kept thinking flowers would have looked nicer. She glanced at the pink monster of a gown she'd chosen and smiled. At least it would be fun to dance in.

"Alright, enough fussing," Téa declared, slapping the extra pins down on the dresser. "Let's go."

Inari shifted uncomfortably in her seat when she saw the ensembles of her friends, and she suddenly felt overdressed. Still, this was the bed she'd made, and she might as well sleep in it. She shimmied into the gigantic, fluffy pink ballgown, fingers gliding over the deep, berry-colored embroidery that formed peacock feathers down the bodice, and envied Téa her crystal-dotted velveteen number. It was off-the-shoulder with long sleeves, and a very classy A-line shape. Serenity was much sweeter and more playful, white with a delicate gold chain for a belt, and everything below it chiffon and very feather-like. She looked like an angel.

Serenity caught Inari smiling stupidly at her, and quizzically grinned back. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied, shaking her head. Waving her off, she added, "You two are making me feel like a big, pink creampuff."

"Don't worry about it," Téa dismissed, "You're an adorable creampuff."

The three of them made their way down to the elevators, where they met up with a handful of other duelists. They'd missed the guys by a few minutes. Squishing into one of the elevators, Inari leaned against the wall and huffed.

"I hope the food's good," she grumbled, "Otherwise this is going to be quite the waste."

"You're worse than Joey," Téa teased. "If you don't let yourself have fun, I'm not going to let you live it down."

"Yeah, yeah." She _did_ like wearing the dress, and couldn't help giving it a very small test-twirl in the tiny elevator.

"Hey, watch where you put that thing."

The reception hall was already crowded when they arrived, and Téa didn't waste time in documenting the night by whipping out her phone and starting to snap photos, grabbing selfies with Serenity and Inari, then pictures of the masses of people and even the buffet. Inari snagged a handful of drinks and passed them around, her eyes searching for the guys.

Joey found them first, beaming. "'Ey, ladies," he greeted warmly. When his eyes landed on Serenity, he teared up and pouted, lip quivering and tears springing to his eyes. "Aw, no, my baby sister's growin' up so fast…" He threw his arms around her, and she just patted his arm. Once he regained his composure, he insisted, "You all are gonna dance with me, right?"

"I dunno, Joey," Inari joked, taking a sip of her syrupy, cherry-flavored cocktail. "I don't think that's a great idea."

"Aw, don't be like that!" he laughed. "I totally got moves." As if to demonstrate, he started pulling out jerky movements that were probably supposed to be hip hop, and the girls all laughed.

"Oh my God," Téa snorted, holding her hand to her mouth and nose. "Not while I'm drinking, I'll shoot it out my nose!"

"I stand corrected," Inari admitted, dipping into a shallow, mocking curtsy. "I don't think I could handle your 'moves,' Joey."

"Joseph Wheeler, you might clean up well, but you still have two left feet."

Inari's breath caught in her throat when she saw Mai Valentine sidling up to them, dressed in an ankle-length Chanel gown in a lovely shade of dark red. Black crystals sparkled in her blond, side-swept hair and at her neck and wrists. She looked like an American Hollywood starlet of the eighties, and it suited her perfectly. This was _Mai_ , after all, and one should expect nothing less. Her eyes did an automatic once-over of Inari, and she smiled.

"Well, don't you look adorable?" she teased, but her voice was warm. "Come on, we've got a table saved."

Yugi's eyes were glued on Téa as the small mob of women approached the round table, and when she smiled at him, he turned a bright red and leaped up from his chair, pulling one out for her and awkwardly gesturing for her to sit down. She obliged with a laugh, and batted her eyelashes at his stammered compliments. Tristan was a little smoother when it came to Serenity.

Inari let herself admired the decorating; the tablecloths were a classic off-white, each table dotted with a unique floral arrangement. Her table was home to a large, round collection of russet-colored pansies. Something was a little off. She tilted her head to the sigh, furrowing her brow.

"Is that a-?" She peered closer. At an angle, she could see the black-eyed Susans, and then it hit her: it was a Kuriboh. "Huh. When Mr. Pegasus has a theme in mind, he really goes all-out, doesn't he?" The other centerpieces were various Duel Monsters, now that she was paying more attention.

She wouldn't pay attention throughout Pegasus's speech, though she was at least aware that she should raise her champagne glass when everyone else did. She took a sip, glad it wasn't wine, but her mind couldn't stop thinking about the food. She hadn't eaten since that morning, and was regretting the decision.

"This had better be good…" Joey grumbled quietly as his stomach growled. She tittered softly, but flashed him a sympathetic look.

"... while we congratulate the finalists! First, of course, give a round of applause for Miss Mai Valentine!"

The woman stood up, giving the crowd an award-winning smile and very noble, subdued wave. As a sign of good will, she held her glass to Pegasus, silently toasting him before she sat back down.

"What a peach. Next…"

One by one, he bade the finalists to stand up and be applauded. The pomp, the prestige, it was all very _much_ , but those who'd been at Duelist Kingdom weren't surprised in the slightest.

Inari was staring blankly at the pansies in front of her when she felt a finger jab her in the side.

" _Stand up,_ " Duke hissed in her ear, " _He just called your name!"_

"Oh-"

She quickly stood, her thigh bumping roughly into the table, much to her embarrassment. At least her gown cushioned the pain. Her cheeks flushed while she gave the others in attendance a small, shy wave. Instead of toasting him, like Mai had, Inari dipped into a quick, shallow curtsy for Pegasus, who beamed at her.

"Really, what a doll!"

He kept on, and Inari was allowed to sit back down to her friends' quiet teasings. "Hey, your face matches your dress!" Joey sniggered. She reached across Duke so she could flick his arm. She'd rather hit the idiot, but this was more subtle.

Dinner was served shortly after Pegasus finished his speech, and none too soon for them, portions deceptively small; Inari found that it was more than enough for her, though she had to suppress a laugh when Joey and Tristan complained. A small band, more like a tiny orchestra, started playing light, classical music to accompany them, and Inari felt all the muscles in her body relax. The fact that she was surrounded by people melted away until she was only aware of her friends and the instruments. Joey was on his best (relative) behavior because Mai was there next to him, but she seemed calmer than normal. More forgiving. Her game face wasn't on, Inari realized. It was actually kind of adorable.

On her other side, Yugi and Téa were chatting it up, letting their years-long friendship carry them through the evening. At some point, he found his face very close to hers, and he didn't mind, somehow. He didn't freeze up or blush as he normally would. In fact, he was pretty surprised with himself. For a moment, he paused to ask Inari something, but he stopped when he saw her expression: she was giving him a grin that egged him on to his advances with Téa. Pointedly, she turned her face and went back to her drink, leaving him to it.

A jazzy tune was struck up, and she felt a hand tap on her shoulder. Mai was standing over her, smiling. She held out a hand. "Want to show these clowns how it's done? I'll lead."

Inari laughed. "I haven't had a decent dancing partner in ages. Don't disappoint me."

They took to the dance floor and Inari lost herself to someone entirely different. As far as she knew, she'd never danced a day in her life—but that wasn't right. She knew she had. Her feet fell into the steps of a foxtrot so easily, it was like she'd done it every day. It was an easy one, light and fun. Though, she and Mai cracked up into laughter when their twirling dresses caught on each other.

"This is why men don't wear dresses when they lead," Inari whispered, and Mai snorted.

"We'll make it work." She flung Inari out to the side like a top, spinning her back in and playfully dipping her.

Others around them had caught on and also started dancing. Their encouragement made the band play with more gusto, and the song seemed to go on forever. Even Téa had Yugi dancing, though their steps were the random, rhythmic side-steps of young adults who didn't know a thing about ballroom dancing. The grins plastered to their faces were enough to make up for it.

Once it ended, and a ballad started floating around the room, Inari and Mai finished their number and went back to their table. Patting her hair back into place, Mai approached Joey and demanded that he dance with her. Inari threw them a wink, and leaned against the wall with a drink in her hand.

Yugi appeared from the crowd and made his way toward her- wait, no, that wasn't Yugi. She smiled, and took Atem by the hand. "Having fun, boys?" she asked him, though she was really addressing Yugi, too.

He nodded. "Very much, so. Yugi especially." He sat against the wall with her, watching the others. It was heartwarming to see his friends enjoy themselves so much. "Though I can't exactly dance. Ballroom hadn't been thought of back in my day."

"' _Back in my day,'"_ she repeated with a chuckle, shaking her head. Gently squeezing his upper arm, she asked, "Here, would you like me to teach you? It's not that hard." Inari took his hand and put it on her shoulder blade, grasping his shoulder and holding his other arm out. "This one's a three-count," she told him. "One-two-three, _one_ -two-three—"

Gently, she guided him through the basic step of a slow waltz until he picked it up.

"No," she corrected gently, laughing, " _You're_ the one supposed to be leading."

"Sorry." But he wasn't. He'd never seen her this happy and relaxed, and it was a nice change of pace. "I didn't know you danced."

"Ha, neither did I." Her laugh was a little bitter, but still light-hearted. "But now that I do, you can bet I'll be doing a lot more of it." She leaned up, standing on her toes, to kiss him before she turned herself out like Mai had done earlier, coming back in so that her back was against his chest. His hand caught hers and squeezed, and they stood like that for a moment, enjoying the closeness.

"How long do you think we'll be able to keep this up?" she suddenly asked.

He smiled and rested his chin on her shoulder. "As long as you wish."

"I don't mean... _this_ ," she snorted, squeezing his arms. "I mean..." She sighed. "You won't be in this world forever, Atem. You have to go... well, I don't know where you're going to go when you regain the rest of your memories, but you sure won't be sticking around here with us."

He'd thought about this, already, before, when Yugi started harassing him about " _You like her, don't you?"_ And he knew she was right. Sooner or later, as much as they loved each other, they would have to part ways. Finding his afterlife would be, he always assumed, insurmountably better than being a parasite on Yugi, even if Yugi didn't think of him as such. He would miss the friends he made in this time, and they would miss him, he knew. But an afterlife was where he belonged.

Then, Yugi asked him about Inari. He loved her, yes, but that wasn't enough to keep him rooted in the present when he belonged in the past. Atem searched his heart for a reason, any scrap of logic, however misguided, that he could use to justify staying with her, even if it was only for a little while longer. And he decided then that he wanted her to remember who she was before he left. As a fellow amnesiac, he would never feel right, never forgive himself if he left her behind in that kind of a sorry state.

"Well, don't you two make an outright _adorable_ couple."

His thoughts were cut off when they saw Pegasus addressing them, looking between them appraisingly. His expression was light, a smile teasing his lips, but something about it felt mask-like. Inari figured out that he didn't exactly blink all that much. He turned to her, taking her by the hand.

"Miss Winters," he greeted, brushing his lips against her knuckles, "I was pleasantly surprised that Duke's protégé made it into the finals of my tournament."

"I don't know about 'protégé,' sir," she deflected sweetly, apologetically, "I just work for him. He taught me a lot, though." Glancing at Atem, she added, "Not as much as Yugi, here, of course."

"Of course." Pegasus thrust out his hand to shake with Atem, who accepted. "And how's my favorite Duelist and saviour-of-the-world doing, these days?"

"Well enough, Pegasus, thanks."

"Excellent, excelent." He took Inari by the arm and started to lead her away. "Now, Yugi-boy, hope you don't mind if I borrow your fetching lady-friend for a few minutes. I promise I'll give her right back."

"What-?"

Inari looked back at him, her eyes screaming " _Help me!"_ But Atem calmly smiled at her. She'd be fine. It turned out that Pegasus wanted to steal her for a dance. The music picked up, and, with his newfound knowledge of tempo, Atem counted the beats. It was another waltz, but much faster, and a little more complicated.

Atem watched her and smiled, wishing that he knew how these steps went. It was like she was floating on air. Where she'd been having fun and loving life with Mai, her movements now were delicate and elegant, her feet barely touching the ground. She didn't even seem to realize that Pegasus had her shoulder. She turned outward, bending and reaching out towards the crowd, and her eyes opened just a sliver. Her gaze met Atem's. Suddenly, for maybe half a heartbeat, he saw her in emerald velvet being lifted in this very dance by a tall, dark man with a sword lashed to his side, no longer in the hotel's reception hall but in a grand ballroom. Her face was happy, laughing without the ghost of… whatever it was that had happened.

It was gone as quickly as it had come. Atem rubbed his eyes, but he wasn't seeing things. Not anymore, anyway. She was doing something with her foot, like an inside-out pirouette, and falling back. She had this odd expression on her face that he couldn't quite read. The music faded away, and she ended with another curtsy to Pegasus, ever the lady. Immediately, she said her good-bye, and started making her way to the door, fingers pressed to her forehead like she had a splitting headache. Of course, Atem went after her.

"Inari!" he called, cursing the restricted mobility of Yugi's tuxedo. "Inari, come back! What's wrong?"

She turned, and he caught the corner of her eye. Her mouth was set in a lip-biting grimace, like she was struggling not to cry. Without so much as a word, she started to run towards the elevators.

Inari's vision was blurring everything in front of her, and she stumbled when she stopped to jam her hand against the "up" button. A dry sob escaped her lips, and she ducked into the stairwell, letting the door slowly shut behind her. She collapsed onto one of the bottom steps and put her head in her hands, leaning on her knees. The world around her was spinning. Her thoughts couldn't arrange themselves into… well, anything, let alone some semblance of order. She was only vaguely aware that Atem found and crouched in front of her, and didn't even realize that she'd been trembling until he steadied her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he whispered softly.

Her voice came out almost too quietly to hear. "Where am I?" she squeaked.

He frowned. _What_? "Inari," he firmly said, taking her hands into his. "You're with me at the hotel. We just left the reception for the dueling tournament. Remember?"

Her eyes looked up at him, wide and frantic like her heavy breathing. She was searching his face. For what, he couldn't say. But it looked like something in her brain was struggling. He knew that look. He'd _been_ that look on Yugi's face. The look of something trapped inside and vying for control, for a foothold in the consciousness. A cold, fleeting thought ran through his mind, but he crushed it down. Of course she wasn't possessed by an ancient spirit. It would be more obvious than that. As tears started to spill from her lined eyes, she held a hand up to her mouth, looking away.

"I- I don't know," she finally choked out, "Something's w-wrong, something's gone horribly wrong, and I don't… I can't…" Dammit, she couldn't finish her _sentence,_ is what she couldn't do. She felt ashamed, like an idiot. She didn't even know _what_ was wrong, let alone how to talk about it. Whatever it was, though, it was horrible. It was dangerous. Wasn't it?

She calmed down a little, and her erratic mind settled. Right. The party. Pegasus. Her friends. It came back to her, faded back into the front of her brain. She took in a deep, shaky breath.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah." She stood up, gripping his shoulder like a vice for support.

"Are you sure?"

"Yep."

He didn't believe her, of course. "Let's go back upstairs. You need sleep."

"No, I'm good. I'm fine." Inari mustered a smile. "Come on, they're probably missing us. Especially you, Mr. King of Games."

The way she went back to teasing him was a little unsettling, like nothing had happened. But that's what they did. They returned to the reception to finish out the night, to the suspicious, knowing, and joking looks of their friends and acquaintances, who'd assumed that the pair had snuck away to make out in some dark, secluded corner of the hotel lobby.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey, everyone! I finally got the next chapter out! Yay! :D I'm very sorry about the wait. My laptop, the thing I use for my writing, is actually busted beyond use when I'm not hooked up to a second monitor, so I have to remember to move my documents onto my Google drive and try to write snatches of it at school, and blah, blah, blah...

Anyway, this was a frustrating chapter to write, but it was fun to have the characters interacting with more than just Inari all the time. I finished this up and thought about the next chapter I have to write, and I realized there isn't much of this part of the story left! I'm actually kind of excited to wrap up The Rose Duelist and get on to the next half.

In other news, my username has changed! WolfMoonSinger was a relic from when I first signed up about ten years ago, and I really though it was time for a change.

I really hope you all enjoyed reading, and thank you very much! Lots of love, GrisailleDreams.


	13. Attack of the Harpies

" _Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the semifinals of the Duelist of the Roses tournament!_ "

Pegasus called out the names of the various sponsors while the crowd went nuts, ignoring him while the six finalists took seats within perfect viewing distance of the only remaining dueling arena. Cameras were glued to their faces, broadcasting them across the world to fans. They were all smiling, confident, collected, and excited. The anticipation could practically be felt in the air.

Their gracious host took the stage in front of the arena and held his hand up for silence. "Thank you all very much for being here!" he unctuously called out, "I'm usually one for speech-making, but I know everyone, myself included, would much rather cut to the chase and get the dueling under way!" The audience agreed wholeheartedly with more screams and cheering. "The first three matches will be decided by random lottery!"

Atem had been wondering quietly how the semifinals would work, considering there were six finalists instead of eight or four. It looked like Pegasus had a plan, though, so he wasn't too worried. He glanced down the line at his friends. Mai and Duke were calm, their faces set and determined to win. Joey was hamming it up to the fraction of the spectators who were shouting out his name and encouragement. Finally, Mokuba was leaning over to whisper something in Inari's ear, and they both softly laughed. She stifled a yawn behind her wrist, and Atem smiled. The pair of them had spent the better part of the morning working on their decks in a comfortable quiet. Now, he subtly reached over and grabbed her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Our first match will be between…" Pegasus trailed off, watching a large screen behind them all randomly flip through the names of the six contestants. "Mai Valentine and Inari Winters!"

" _Aww_ …" Inari murmured, casting a side-glance at Atem before she stifled her pout. She'd really wanted to duel him. The two women came to the front of the arena and shook hands, both smiling.

As they exchanged decks for shuffling, Mai said, "Good luck, kid. You're going to need it."

"I'm sure I will." Inari grinned, her heart racing with anticipation as she and Mai swapped back their decks. Winking, giving her the thumbs-up, she asked, "Are you ready to bring it?"

Mai took back her cards, shaking hands with Inari. "My harpies are going to wipe the floor with your big, bad Aqua Dragon."

"We'll see."

"Duelists," Pegasus called out, sitting back in his front-row seat, "Take your places and choose your deck leader!"

Inari stepped up to her side of the arena, taking her deck leader out of her pocket. "As always, I'll be represented by the Illusory Gentleman!" Her voice rang out through the room, and she realized that there was a small mic dangling from a wire just a few feet above her head. There was another one above Mai, so both of them could be clearly heard. The Illusory Gentleman appeared on the map, though the terrain hadn't been revealed, yet. Bringing his hand to his heart, he bowed to Mai.

She didn't react. "Harpy Lady is the only deck leader for me." The pink-haired monster, wings beating gently, materialized, and everyone cheered. Mai was a popular duelist, and the favorite to win this fight.

"Excellent!" Pegasus clapped his hands, and the terrain appeared. "Ladies and gentleman, let's start the first match of the semifinals!"

Inari had barely heard him, her eyes scanning the ground instantly. Both the right and left sides were lined with barren wasteland, and the rest was filled in with mountains. She had _some_ creatures that would do well, but she needed to be on the lookout for her terraformation cards. Her first hand was good enough: Ameba, Meteor Dragon, Red Medicine, and, best of all Aqua Dragon. There was also her Key Mace, but she didn't have much to do with it. Instead, she set out her Ameba, moving it forward. It only had three hundred attack points, but that's not why she kept it in her deck. Feeling brave, she also moved her deck leader forward, and ended her turn.

"Daring," Mai commented with a smirk. "I power up this monster and move it forward… Come and get me, little girl."

Inari furrowed her brow a little bit. Ameba wouldn't survive an attack, no matter the monster. But she couldn't move it forward and put it in defense mode in the same turn. Oh, well, it would be enough where it was sitting.

"I put this card in defense mode," she announced, turning Ameba sideways, "And I play this one face-down." As soon as Aqua Dragon was on the field, she moved the Illusory Gentleman back to its original position.

"Tyhone!" Mai called out, "Attack her face-down card!"

A creepy, tiny yellow monster with a sphere for a body, batwings, and a horn for a nose forced her Ameba out of hiding. It beat down the big, blue blob until it was destroyed, but it didn't take any life points. The second her Ameba was flipped up, though, five squares of mountain terrain changed into the sea, bringing Tyhone's attack down and the unseen Aqua Dragon's up.

Giving a small smile, Inari told Mai, "Say hello to my baby—Aqua Dragon, attack!"

The massive, blue dragon reared up from under the card, roaring loudly at the tiny Tyhone before blasting it into nothing with a burst of glowing water. Mai flinched as her life points went down to just under three thousand.

"To end my turn, I play Red Medicine." The potion bottle poured its contents out onto the Illusory Gentleman, giving Inari an extra five hundred points.

"Not a bad move, kid," Mai praised solemnly. "I play another face-down card."

Feeling cocky, Inari made her dragon muscle in on one of Mai's cards, revealing a massive peacock. The dragon roared, flexing its front talons, and destroyed the bird in a puff of feathers. She had drawn her Mirror Wall trap, but didn't know if she wanted to play it so soon. Maybe she wouldn't need it. Meteor Dragon kept to the mountains, where it got a terrain boost, waiting while its watery cousin forged a path of water through the rocky terrain.

Mai's Harpy Lady deck leader fled, and Inari gave chase. But, once she had Mai cornered, Mai smiled triumphantly and said, "Your Aqua Dragon activated my trap card—Acid Trap Hole."

"No!" Inari shouted, wishing to God she could call her monster back. It let out a death growl as it dissolved into the virtual pit. She looked in her hand. She would play Mirror Wall the next turn. For now, she put down False Trap, a card that she'd placed in her deck just for this duel with Mai. It would nullify the Harpy's Feather Duster that Inari _knew_ her opponent had. Silently, she hoped that Meteor Dragon would be able to get the job done with Mirror Wall's help.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. "Monstrous Bird, attack that face-down card!" Mai commanded. The giant bald eagle flew at the newly-revealed Meteor Dragon, talons extended, and destroyed it.

"Your monster is spellbound," Inari pointed out.

"It was worth it." Mai smirked. "You don't have any more monsters on the field, Inari. I hope you have something better than that Aqua Dragon up your sleeve."

Inari had the Water Magician in her hand, but she really needed Mirror Wall now. Mai's monsters were too far away to touch her life points, anyway. "Make my day, Mai!" Inari shouted.

"I will, once I get my monsters over there."

" _Okay, twenty-five divided by two, more or less than nineteen…."_ She was trying to do the quick math in her head, her desperation mounting as she moved her Water Magician up through the sea that the Ameba and Aqua Dragon had created before. " _But Monstrous Bird doesn't get a terrain boost, so… agh, forget the math!_ " To fortify her defenses, she combined Key Mace and Doma, the Angel of Silence to create the Dark Witch. She set the witch in defense mode, but Mai wagged her finger.

"Ah-ah, that activates another trap card," she sang out, "Shadow of Eyes! With this card, you can't place anything in defense mode!"

"Fantastic!" Inari burst out sardonically.

"Go, Monstrous Bird!" Mai called, "Attack her face-down card!"

Ah, finally. "Mirror Wall," Inari cut in, "Activate!" The bird's attack points were cut down enough that the blue-clad Water Magician was able to fight back, destroying the eagle easily. "Awesome job," Inari said softly. To her surprise, the Water Magician looked back and threw her a wink.

She looked at her hand. There were a lot of useless cards that she didn't need, but she _did_ have the Illusionist Faceless Mage. Tossing out the Dark Artist and Fairywitch, Inari powered up the Mage and set it down in front of her. The Dark Witch got a power boost one she was moved into the mountains from the water, which was a welcomed relief. Mai glanced at her hand.

"I'll skip my turn, this time," she decided.

Inari drew four more cards, and was pleased to see the Change of Heart. "I play Change of Heart!" she declared, "And I'll choose to take control of… _that one_!" She picked a defense-position card directly in front of the Harpy Lady. She was disappointed to see that it was just a trap card, but it was better to have it destroyed by the deck leader than to have it spellbind one of her monsters.

Mai put down another face-down card, and moved it. At this point, she was totally ignoring the Water Magician.

Keeping the cards in the mountains moving forward, Inari put down Rare Fish and made it combine with the Water Magician to create the Marine Beast. The blue half-lion hid in the watery depths underneath its card, waiting for a chance to strike. Mai raised an eyebrow. Her life points were being cut down much faster than she'd anticipated, and there wasn't much she could do. Rather than go after a fusion monster, especially one that had been created by a beefed-up water monster, she chose Inari's Dark Witch.

"Birdface, attack!"

The monster was like someone had taken one of Mai's harpies and slapped the head of a hawk onto its neck. Luckily, Mirror Wall weakened it, and the Dark Witch blasted it away with her magical red staff.

"Did I just win?" Inari asked herself. As the life point counter went down to zero, she let out a breathy, disbelieving laugh. " _Ma Deesse,_ I did!"

She heard the screaming and the applause, and the voices of her friends rising above the audience, but her eyes sought out Atem, first. His face was still set in his usual determined smile, not giving away a damn thing, but she could see the affection in his eyes. She couldn't hold back her giddy smile.

"Beautifully played!" Pegasus was calling into the microphone. "Simply exquisite, ladies! Inari Winters moves on to the next round of the semifinals, but now let us continue forward with our next match!" He paused as the randomizer chose two more names, and both Mai and Inari reclaimed their seats. "The next match will be between Joey Wheeler and Mokuba Kaiba!"

"Oh, great," Duke grumbled sarcastically, "I get to go up against Yugi."

"You'll be fine, Boss," she whispered around Atem's shoulder. She sat straight back in her chair and crossed her ankles in the most ladylike fashion she could, watching as Joey and Mokuba summoned their deck leaders.

A low voice murmured in her ear. "Well done," Atem commended. "I knew you'd win."

"Right," she chuckled softly. "Alright, I'll bet you one of my coins that Mokuba wins."

"I'll take that bet, but I'd rather you not have to give up something that expensive," he insisted.

Smirking a little, she asked, "Really, now? Then what would you prefer, if I lose?"

He leaned over and whispered something in her ear that dusted her cheeks with pink. Inari swatted playfully at his shoulder and went back to watching the match.

"If I win," she muttered after a moment, "That is to say, if Mokuba beats Joey, then you have to make sure the tournament comes down to you and I in the last match."

Giving her a permissive smile, he murmured, "Right."

Among the crowd, lost in the sea of faces, Scott was holding the magic mirror too low for anyone else but himself to see. Reflected inside was not his current employer, but the a still image like a photograph. Or, more accurately, a portrait. He wryly thought that the other one, the blonde, would have been a better fit for the description, but there she was, in full color. For her sake, he felt a little sorry. But that wasn't what he was being paid for.

While the next two finalists were diving into their match, dragon-versus-dragon, warrior-versus-warrior, who the hell cared, Scott weaved between people until he was able to duck back into the hallway, unnoticed. He waved a hand over the mirror's surface, concentrating like he'd been instructed, until a familiar figure replaced the portrait.

" _Well?"_ she asked.

"Yeah, it's her," he sighed. "Want me to take her into custody for you? It'll cost extra."

" _That's quite alright,"_ the woman insisted. " _I'm going to handle the situation personally. As far as I'm concerned, you've done what's been required of you. Expect your payment to arrive when I do."_

"Should I meet you somewhere, or…?"

" _No. It'll find you, worry not. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must prepare for my departure."_

After the mirror went dim and changed back into glass, Scott glanced back into the convention hall and saw that little girl perched in her chair, her arm linked happily to the man beside her. He knew _why_ she was being hunted, sort of. Maybe not the details, but enough of the general picture. It didn't make him feel any better. As he sauntered down the hall to go check out of his hotel room, he briefly wondered if a the fat paycheck coming his way would help. Then, he finally hoped that he was still morally human enough that it wouldn't, after all.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Chapter 13 finished! Sorry this was a short one! I might be getting a little antsy to finish The Rose Duelists so we can finally move on to Part 2. Anyway, I don't have much to say about this one, really, except that after you play this Duelist of the Roses game for as long as I have, winning becomes too easy :\ Constructing this one to be more difficult was a challenge, because Mai's character in-game isn't particularly tough. I think I got there, though.

As always, thank you so much for reading! Lots of love, GrisailleDreams


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